Invoice analytics system

ABSTRACT

A method and an invoice analytics system (IAS) for analyzing an entity&#39;s business service transactional invoice data (BSTID) and performing invoice analytics (IA) in real time are provided. The IAS extracts contract line item (CLI) data from contracts and stores the CLI data in a CLI database. The IAS transforms the CLI data into a quick view format and generates a contract quick view interface that displays the CLI data on an entity device. The IAS extracts and segments invoice line item (ILI) data from aggregated BSTID, stores the ILI data in an ILI database, and reconciles the invoices in accordance with the contracts by identifying and rectifying errors and off-contract business service items. The IAS performs IA on the ILI data for computing cost savings and generates an interactive, dynamic, and searchable IA report including graphical data representations of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, and predictive analytics for the entity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation application of non-provisional patent applicationSer. No. 15/817,353 titled “Invoice Analytics System”, filed in theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office on Nov. 20, 2017, which claimspriority to and the benefit of the provisional patent application No.62/424,559 titled “Invoice Analytics System”, filed in the United StatesPatent and Trademark Office on Nov. 21, 2016. The specification of theabove referenced patent application is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Most entities, for example, businesses, companies, organizations, etc.,typically procure supplies and products from third parties, for example,vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, etc., for their business. An entityprovides a list of products the entity desires to purchase from a vendorand issues a purchase order containing line item details for the desiredproducts. The vendor issues an invoice for the products shipped to theentity and the entity checks the delivered products against the productsordered. The vendor validates the delivered products with the productsordered using a purchase order number and the line item details in thepurchase order. Since the products are delivered based on the entity'sinitiation of the purchase order, there is a process validation of theline item details in the purchase order with the line item details inthe invoice issued for the delivered products. The products are orderedfirst by line item and then delivered, utilized, and paid.

Furthermore, entities procure professional services, and/or purchasedservices, and/or outsourced services, hereafter collectively referred as“business services”, from one or more third parties to conduct theirbusiness. Business services encompass a large demographic, for example,from temporary staffing and housekeeping, to laundry, documentmanagement, food service, lawn maintenance, transportation services,etc. For business services, an entity establishes a contract thatindicates terms, conditions, and agreed prices for the business serviceswith a vendor similar to an agreement for products between the entityand the vendor. However, the business services are not accounted in adetailed purchase order that is issued before the business services areprovided. Since the vendor is acting on behalf of the entity, thebusiness services, for example, legal services are provided based on theentity's requirement and cannot be pre-ordered. Moreover, the vendortypically provides the business services first and then accounts for thebusiness services by submitting invoices to the entity based onutilization of the business services. Unlike products that arepurchased, vendors provide business services first and then invoice theentity for payment. Also, when the vendor submits an invoice for paymentto the entity for a business service such as a professional service, asthe line items of the business service are specific to that vendor, theline items are not detailed in an operational system, for example, abusiness procurement system of the entity for validation or tracking butare instead rolled up or merged into one total invoice amount, that is,a total sum of the invoice in the entity's accounts payable system. As aresult, the entity does not have visibility into the line item detailsof the business services other than by performing a manual process ofphysically examining the invoice. Hence, the entity can run only aninternal report for the business services by vendor with a total sum ofthe invoice but not with the line item details of the business services.While the entity can run a report to show the total spend of the entityby month for the business services provided by the vendor, the entitydoes not have access to the line item details for the business servicesdue to the nature of the spend. Therefore, if the entity wants toanalyze their business services spend, then conventionally the entitymust retrieve the actual paper invoices manually, review the retrievedinvoices manually, and input the reviewed invoices manually into aspreadsheet or an electronic document, for example, a Microsoft® Worddocument or a Microsoft® Excel document of Microsoft Corporation. Hence,there is a need for a method and a system that automates analysis ofbusiness service transactional invoice data and reconciliation ofbusiness service transactions between an entity and a vendor.

An invoice is a commercial document provided by a vendor to an entity,relating to procurement of products and/or business services. Theinvoice indicates products and/or business services, quantities, andagreed prices for the products and/or business services provided by thevendor to the entity. The invoice for a business service, in general,indicates specific services performed, for example, a testing service, acleaning service, a dietary service, a transportation service, etc.,that may include a description of a job, number of people deployed forthe job, number of man hours in performing the job, etc., unlike theinvoice for purchase of products. The invoice for the business servicecomprises an extensive amount of service data present in the invoicethat is sourced from the contract between the entity and the vendor.Vendor billing of the business service in accordance with the contractto the business entity is typically a manual task and as such has asubstantial risk of billing errors that typically go unseen or are notidentified by the entity.

The extensive amount of unique specific service data containing detailsof multiple business services provided by the vendor present in theinvoice requires the entity, for example, a large organization, to spenda large amount of time and resources for reviewing the invoice. Theentity receives and reviews the invoice to verify if any job under thecontract is pending, and if no job is pending, the entity processes theinvoice for payment. Moreover, the invoice has to be manually verifiedfor pricing accuracy. In general, the entity only conducts a briefsummary review of the invoice. If the invoice remains fairly constant ona month-to-month basis, the invoice is paid without any further detailedreconcilement. However, due to complexity of the contract and the manualaspect of billing for the business service, the invoice for the businessservice typically contains multiple billing errors. Consider an examplewhere a vendor provides a legal service to an entity and a contractbetween the vendor and the entity states that free copies of a legaldocument will be provided to the entity. A reviewer of the invoice mayoverlook this statement in the contract and the entity may end up payingfor the copies of the legal document. Conventional methods forreconciling an invoice do not provide a means for the entity to assesserrors in the invoice in real time, resulting in the entity having topay high prices or get fees assessed that are not in compliance with theentity's contract. Reconciliation of business services is difficult asbusiness services vary, for example, by number of contracts, variouslocations within a business entity, number of people deployed for a job,number of man hours, over time of people deployed for the job based onthe classification of tasks under the business service, payer mixes,etc.

Unlike supplies that are generally ordered using catalogs or through aninternal item master data table of the entity, business services areoutsourced and purchased throughout an entity. And rather than beingdelivered to a loading dock under the supervision of procurement,business services enter every access point of the entity, and in somecases, may actually occur outside of the entity. An entity may outsourceand purchase services throughout the entity from multiple and diversegroups of vendors. For example, the entity may use a national serviceprovider for a food service and use a local service provider for lawnservices and/or housekeeping services. The entity procures the businessservices based on particular requirements of the entity, resulting indiverse and varied pricing, and based on various ways the vendorinvoices for the business services with additional fees. There may notbe a catalog or a price guide from which the associated costs arederived. Because benchmarks on business service costs are not readilyavailable, the diverse and varied pricing of services makes it difficultto determine whether spending is too much or too little and prevents theentity from negotiating appropriate costs. The business services mayenter the entity from multiple access points and/or may occur outside ofthe entity without any supervision. In conventional methods, thecomplexity involved in purchasing, delivering, contracting, andmonitoring business services prevents the entity from identifying errorsin the invoices and does not provide real time visibility into thebusiness services procured by the entity. Moreover, the conventionalmethods do not provide automated, ongoing line item visibility, realtime pricing analysis, and benchmarks for the business services.

Line item cost details in invoices are foundational in understanding andmeasuring true costs for an entity. Consider an example where an entityutilizes waste disposal services at an agreed upon price. In thisexample, when a vendor such as a waste disposal service providerinvoices the entity for waste pick-ups during a week, the waste disposalservice provider adds minimum pick up charges, energy surcharge, andother miscellaneous fees which add to the costs of the waste disposalservices but are not recited in the agreed upon terms in a contractbetween the entity and the vendor. Since the invoices have to bemanually reviewed, and in large organizations, could contain hundreds tothousands of pages per month, most of the miscellaneous fees,overcharges, pricing errors, etc., are not identified. There is a needfor a method and a system that automates identification of billingpricing errors, contract compliance errors, and line item service coststhat are not under a contract or are off contract in the invoices forthe business services and performs invoice analytics for price andutilization optimization of the business services and benchmarking forcost savings of the entity. Moreover, there is a need for a method and asystem that performs an automated historical analysis of invoicesreceived over a predefined duration of time and an automated real timeanalysis of invoices received in real time, for example, on a monthlybasis as the invoices are received from the vendor.

Billing pricing errors are rarely found on a monthly basis in invoicesfor business services. Only when the entity conducts a retrospectiveaccounts payable audit or a performance improvement initiative, somebilling pricing errors are found. Moreover, in the accounts payableaudit or the performance improvement initiative, only if the entitypulls all the previous invoices for the business services and comparesevery entry in each of the invoices with a corresponding contract, theentity may identify all of the billing pricing errors. The entity wouldrarely compare every entry in each of the invoices with the contract dueto complexity of the contract and enormous resources and time the entitywould need to conduct this reconciliation by business services, byvendor, by month, by line item, etc. In the manual process, contractstypically cannot be located to compare with the invoices. If thecontract is located, it is laborious to identify relevant pricing,utilization terms, and financial terms that may impact the invoice.Therefore, there is a need for an automated method and a system forreconciling invoices to contracts for business services using a quickview interface that abstracts a contract and displays terms in thecontract corresponding to every entry in the invoice for enhancedreview, interpretation, comparison, and statistical analysis of theinvoice.

Typically, reconciled invoices for products or supplies allow an entityto gauge utilization of the products or supplies by the entity over apredefined duration of time, for example, a month. Invoices for businessservices are difficult to reconcile on a monthly basis for validatingthe utilization of the business services. Consider an example where avendor such as a laboratory testing service provider provides alaboratory testing service as an outsourced and purchased service to theentity. The laboratory testing service provider sends an invoice basedon the number of patients tested, the number of patients on whom bloodwork was conducted, and by the number of tests conducted per month onall the patients. Validating the utilization of the laboratory testingservice by the entity requires a reviewer of the invoice to access anoperational system, for example, a registration system, an accountspayable system, etc., of the entity to validate the utilization for eachmonth. There is a need for a method and a system for generating autilization validation interface that links to an operational system ofthe entity for validating the utilization of the business services.

When an entity enters an invoice for a business service into anoperational system, for example, an accounts payable system of theentity, basic invoice information, for example, vendor details, date,subtotal, fees, etc., is typically entered into the operational systemwithout line item details for the business service. The operationalsystem does not analyze the spend on the business service as theoperational system does for products or supplies as no line item detailsare provided. Using the operational system alone, the entity cannotperform invoice analytics and utilization reviews by line item detail.Therefore, there is a need for a method and a system that performsinvoice analytics by line item detail for price and utilizationoptimization of the business services in communication with theoperational system of the entity.

Moreover, entities typically do not utilize insight from their monthlyinvoices to optimize their purchase patterns or spend habits forbusiness services in real time and also do not trend the purchasepatterns of the business services in real time to identify the purchasepatterns' or variation problems as they happen to take corrective actionin real time for cost control and utilization. Furthermore, for entitiesthat perform optimization and trending on an annual basis or a two-yearbasis, which is a manual process, the entities have to review everyinvoice for that period of time and the line item details would have tobe manually reviewed and transcribed into an electronic document, forexample, a Microsoft® Word document or a Microsoft® Excel document ofMicrosoft Corporation, etc., for the analysis. There is a need forgenerating an interactive, dynamic, and searchable comprehensive reportthat allows the entity to identify and analyze purchase patterns,outliers, and variations, and perform predictive analysis of metrics ofthe entity.

Consider an example where entities such as hospitals transact withmultiple vendors for different business services. More hospitals havebeen focusing on cost reduction initiatives on the business servicesspend. One of the reasons for the hospitals to rationalize businessservice costs is that most service items within the business serviceshave a larger cost reduction opportunity compared to that in supply andequipment spends. Utilization of the business services varies over timeand can even vary among hospitals within the same health system. Closemonitoring and analysis of business services utilization expose thelargest hospital cost reduction opportunities. These cost reductionopportunities can be realized by optimizing and better controllingutilization of the business services. However, the hospitals facechallenges in realizing the cost reduction opportunities. One of thechallenges is that a monthly reconciliation of invoices is either neverperformed or is performed in a cursory manner with approval routinelygranted if the invoice is within about 10% of the previous month'sinvoice. Typically, in hospitals, every month, about 50% of non-laborspend falls within business services. 50% of the non-labor spend ismanually reviewed and reconciled for contract compliance, for example,by department directors, vice presidents, and chief nursing officers.This manual reconciliation is substantially labor intensive and provescostly to the hospital. Therefore, there is a need for automatingreconciliation of invoices in accordance with corresponding contracts inhospitals. Moreover, cost analysis conducted for the business servicesis typically not in-depth and/or not holistic. The typical cost analysisinvolves benchmarking only the contract pricing terms and reviewinginvoices of only the current month. Furthermore, many business servicescost reduction initiatives require subject matter experts to performwalk-throughs and a comprehensive reimbursement analysis for validatingprofitability. Another cost analysis approach is to request for autilization spend report from the vendor. However, the utilization spendreport typically prepared by vendors do not reflect what the paidinvoices show and omit vendor fees, service charges, shipping charges,and other costs. Therefore, there is a need for performing a rigorousand comprehensive cost analysis for the business services provided tohospitals.

A majority of hospital business services spend is not addressed even byleading healthcare consulting firms that are specifically engaged toperform business services cost reductions. A reason for not addressingbusiness services spend is that business services spend areas, forexample, revenue cycle, finance, legal, marketing, and real estateleases are typically presumed to be beyond the scope of benchmarking ora utilization improvement review because expertise required to conductan analysis is either unavailable or is subject to privacy concerns ofsensitive relationships between vendors and entities. For example, alegal bill audit is an opportunity to measure contract compliance andbenchmark legal fees, and potentially improve utilization of an entitysuch as a hospital. Hourly rates charged by attorneys and their staffneed to be benchmarked and have pricing consistency throughout thehospital. The charges of a law firm for their time are used to determineoverall legal expenses of the hospital. Minimum billing increments ofquarter hours will lead to significantly higher billing amounts ininvoices than tenth of an hour billing increments. Beyond billing rates,there are multiple other areas for cost improvement that a legal billaudit can uncover, for example, pyramiding, that is, charging forclerical work at attorney or accountant rates, changing hourly rateswithout prior approval, changing staffing for the convenience of the lawfirm without prior approval, billing for time spent creating orreviewing bills, using multiple attorneys to accomplish the work of asingle attorney, billing improbably long days, billing in large minimumtime segments such as 15 minutes for leaving a voicemail, billing fortime in excess of what was actually spent, duplicate time charges, overstaffing, inefficient procedures such as indecipherable invoicedescriptions, excessive minimum time charges, bundling of describedfunctions, markup on costs that should be passed through to clients,expert witnesses, other support services, etc. Therefore, there is aneed for a method and system for auditing contract compliance andbenchmarking fees for the business services.

Unlike medical items, supplies, and equipment that a hospital ordersunder a purchase order number, while each business services line item isconsumed by the hospital, the utilization and invoicing are accountedfor by the vendor. Because the vendor has disproportionate invoiceaccountability in the relationship between the hospital and the vendor,business services invoices need significant scrutiny and detailed dataanalytics. All cost savings take place at a line item detail level. Ahospital cannot directly achieve cost savings from monthly categoryspend alone. While monthly spend by business services category can beindicative for cost savings opportunities, there is a need for examiningand trending substantial detail from accounts payable spend by month,month over month to observe variability of the accounts payable spend.If an unusual monthly spend variance is identified, for example, anunusual spike in monthly spend, there is a need for analyzing invoiceline item details during that month to identify the cause. However,spend variances are not easy to identify. Spend variances can increasegradually or are masked by countervailing other factors. In cases wheremonthly increases in category spend data takes place, an accountspayable department of the hospital pays two months of invoices in onemonth or capital or one time spend in a month. Therefore, there is aneed for providing monthly invoice line item spend details to an entityfor uncovering necessary insights for better spend decisions primarilyaround utilization of specific business services and identifying andrectifying invoice pricing errors and off-contract spend.

Hence, there is a long felt need for a method and a system for analyzingbusiness service transactional invoice data of an entity and performinginvoice analytics for the entity in real time for price and utilizationoptimization of business services and benchmarking in real time for costsavings of the entity. Moreover, there is a need for a method and asystem for extracting and storing contract line item data from contractsand invoice line item data from invoices to identify, detail, andoutline billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors, andoff-contract business service items by line item for reconciliation ofthe invoices in accordance with the contracts by line item. Furthermore,there is a need for a method and a system for generating interfaces thatallow optimal review, interpretation, comparison, and statisticalanalysis of the invoices in accordance with the contracts, andvalidation of utilization of the business services in communication withthe operational system of the entity. Furthermore, there is a need for amethod and a system for generating an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report that provides an enhancedvisualization of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, and predictiveanalytics of metrics of the entity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further disclosed in the detailed descriptionof the invention. This summary is not intended to determine the scope ofthe claimed subject matter.

The method and the system disclosed herein address the above recitedneeds for analyzing business service transactional invoice datacorresponding to business service transactions, for example,professional service transactions, purchased service transactions, andoutsourced service transactions between an entity and one or morevendors based on line item data of invoices corresponding to thebusiness service transactions and performing invoice analytics for theentity in real time for price and utilization optimization of businessservices comprising, for example, professional services, purchasedservices, and outsourced services, and benchmarking in real time forcost savings of the entity. The method and the system disclosed hereinperform a detail assessment of the invoices and contracts of the entityand reconciles the invoices in real time. The invoice analytics systemperforms data extraction, automated reconciliation of invoice line itemdata to contract line item data, automated reconciliation of invoiceline item data to similar contract line item data, data segmentation,transformation of singular invoice line item data into monthlyaggregated invoice line item data for performance improvement andanalysis, generation of a graphically displayed interface with categoryspecific reporting and key performance indicators, and transmission ofline item data to procurement systems.

The method and the system disclosed herein extract and store contractline item data from contracts and invoice line item data from invoicesto identify, detail, and outline billing pricing errors, contractcompliance errors, and off-contract business service items by line itemfor reconciliation of the invoices in accordance with the contracts byline item. Moreover, the method and the system disclosed herein generateinterfaces that allow optimal review, interpretation, comparison, andstatistical analysis of the invoices in accordance with the contracts,and validation of utilization of the business services in communicationwith an operational system of the entity. Furthermore, the method andthe system disclosed herein generate an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report that provides an enhancedvisualization of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, and predictiveanalytics of metrics of the entity.

The method disclosed herein employs an invoice analytics systemcomprising at least one processor configured to execute computer programinstructions for analyzing business service transactional invoice dataof an entity and performing invoice analytics for the entity in realtime. The invoice analytics system receives multiple contractscomprising agreement information on business service transactionsbetween the entity and one or more vendors from one or more data sourcesand creates a contract terms database for storing the received contractsby vendor. The invoice analytics system extracts contract line item datafrom the received contracts and creates a contract line item databasefor storing the extracted contract line item data. The invoice analyticssystem transforms the extracted contract line item data into a quickview format and generates and renders a contract quick view interface ona graphical user interface of an entity device. The contract quick viewinterface displays the extracted contract line item data of the receivedcontracts in the quick view format for optimal review, interpretation,comparison, and statistical analysis.

The invoice analytics system also receives multiple invoices comprisingthe business service transactional invoice data corresponding to thebusiness service transactions between the entity and the vendors fromthe data sources and aggregates the business service transactionalinvoice data by vendor and by a predefined time duration, for example, amonth, in an invoice aggregation database. The invoice analytics systemextracts and segments invoice line item data from the aggregatedbusiness service transactional invoice data and creates an invoice lineitem database for storing the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata. The invoice analytics system identifies, details, and outlinesbilling pricing errors, contract compliance errors, and off-contractbusiness service items from the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data with reference to the extracted contract line item data atpredefined time intervals, for example, monthly, automatically in realtime using the created invoice line item database and the createdcontract line item database. The invoice analytics system rectifies theidentified, detailed, and outlined billing pricing errors and contractcompliance errors, and resolves the off-contract business service itemsin real time to reconcile the received invoices in accordance with thereceived contracts for the predefined time intervals. The creation ofthe invoice line item database and the contract line item database allowthe process of reconciliation of the received invoices to be fullyautomated. To perform a real time reconciliation of the invoices to thecontracts with a push of a button, the invoice analytics system performsreal time contract compliance. In an embodiment, the invoice analyticssystem generates a utilization validation interface that links to anoperational system, for example, an accounts payable system, of theentity for validating utilization of the business services on thereconciliation of the received invoices.

The invoice analytics system, in communication with an operationalsystem of the entity, performs invoice analytics on the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data with supplementary data for price andutilization optimization of the business services and benchmarking inreal time for cost savings. As a part of the invoice analytics, theinvoice analytics system, in communication with an external database,computes cost savings for the entity based on analytics criteriacomprising the identified billing pricing errors, the contractcompliance errors, and the off-contract business service items. Based onthe invoice analytics of the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata, the invoice analytics system generates an interactive, dynamic,and searchable invoice analytics report comprising graphical datarepresentations of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, andpredictive analytics for the entity over the predefined time duration atthe predefined time intervals.

The invoice analytics system minimizes manual processes by performingdata collection and processing comprising, for example, data gathering,filtering, mapping, and reconciliation. This allows the invoice lineitem data to reside close to procurement sources, thereby reducinginvoicing bottlenecks, while still allowing data to be accessible from acentral location. The invoice analytics system aligns the invoice lineitem data with the contract line item data to allow the entity andvendors to have the same data sets.

In one or more embodiments, related systems comprise circuitry and/orprogramming for effecting the methods disclosed herein. The circuitryand/or programming can be any combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware configured to effect the methods disclosed herein dependingupon the design choices of a system designer. Also, in an embodiment,various structural elements can be employed depending on the designchoices of the system designer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description ofthe invention, is better understood when read in conjunction with theappended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention,exemplary constructions of the invention are shown in the drawings.However, the invention is not limited to the specific methods andcomponents disclosed herein. The description of a method step or acomponent referenced by a numeral in a drawing is applicable to thedescription of that method step or component shown by that same numeralin any subsequent drawing herein.

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate a method for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time.

FIG. 2 exemplarily illustrates a flow diagram showing extraction ofcontract line item data and invoice line item data performed by aninvoice analytics system for analyzing business service transactionalinvoice data of an entity and performing invoice analytics for theentity in real time.

FIGS. 3A-3B exemplarily illustrate a flowchart comprising the stepsperformed by the invoice analytics system for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time.

FIG. 4 exemplarily illustrates an invoice comprising business servicetransactional invoice line item data received by the invoice analyticssystem for extracting and segmenting invoice line item data.

FIGS. 5A-5I exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data from businessservice transactional invoice data of the invoice.

FIGS. 6A-6B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninvoice received from a vendor and a table comprising invoice line itemdata extracted from business service transactional invoice data of theinvoice and segmented by the invoice analytics system.

FIGS. 7A-7B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data from the invoiceand populate a table for reconciliation of the received invoice.

FIGS. 8A-8C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data from the invoiceand populate a table for reconciliation of the received invoice.

FIGS. 9A-9B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data from the invoiceand populate a table for reconciliation of the received invoice.

FIGS. 10A-10B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data from the invoiceand populate a table for reconciliation of the received invoice.

FIGS. 11A-11B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice received from avendor to extract and segment invoice line item data and populate atable for reconciliation of the received invoice.

FIGS. 12A-12C exemplarily illustrate screenshots displaying an invoiceof a vendor, a form comprising invoice line item data, and a tablecomprising the invoice line item data extracted from business servicetransactional invoice data of the invoice respectively.

FIGS. 13A-13C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report generatedby the invoice analytics system.

FIGS. 14A-14C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report comprisingdifferent graphical data representations of invoice analytics performedon invoices of a vendor.

FIG. 15 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying a tabularrepresentation of off-contract business service items identified ininvoices received from a vendor.

FIGS. 16A-16C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a utilizationvalidation interface generated by the invoice analytics system forvalidating utilization of business services by an entity.

FIGS. 17A-17D exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying a summaryof calculations performed and reports generated by the invoice analyticssystem.

FIG. 18 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninvoice received from a vendor and a table comprising invoice line itemdata extracted from the invoice and segmented by the invoice analyticssystem.

FIGS. 19A-19C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report generatedby the invoice analytics system.

FIGS. 20A-20B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying acontract of an entity for a business service and a table comprisingcontract line item data extracted from the contract by the invoiceanalytics system respectively.

FIG. 21 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying a tabularrepresentation of invoice line item data by month extracted by theinvoice analytics system from an invoice received from a vendor for abusiness service.

FIGS. 22A-22F exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report comprisingdifferent graphical data representations of the invoice analyticsperformed by the invoice analytics system for a business service.

FIG. 23 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying areconciliation report comprising a tabular representation of pricingerrors of business service line items identified in invoices receivedfrom a vendor by the invoice analytics system.

FIG. 24 exemplarily illustrates a business service item master datatable for business services.

FIGS. 25A-25C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of graphicalrepresentations of invoice line item data utilized by the invoiceanalytics system for performing a comparative analysis of the invoiceline item data extracted and segmented from invoices of vendors in asimilar category of business services.

FIGS. 26A-26B exemplarily illustrate an embodiment of a systemcomprising the invoice analytics system for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time.

FIG. 27 exemplarily illustrates an embodiment of the invoice analyticssystem implemented in a data lake architecture for analyzing businessservice transactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoiceanalytics for the entity in real time.

FIG. 28 exemplarily illustrates another embodiment of the systemcomprising the invoice analytics system for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate a method for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time. As used herein, the term “entity” refers toan individual such as a person, a business, a firm, a company, anorganization, etc., that procures professional services, and/orpurchased services, and/or outsourced services from vendors. Also, asused herein, the term “vendor” refers to an individual such as a person,a business, a firm, or an agency that sells business services to anentity or performs business services for the entity. Also, as usedherein, “business service transactional invoice data” refers toinformation on an invoice that is generated when an entity is billed forbusiness services which were performed by a vendor. The business servicetransactional invoice data encompasses information used for constructingan invoice for payment. The business service transactional invoice datacomprises specific details of business service transactions, forexample, description of the business services performed, a servicenumber that is specific to a business service performed similar to anitem number that is specific to a product ordered, a location where thebusiness service was performed, quantity in terms of hours or days,units of pick-up, etc., prices paid for the business services performed,and additional fees that were not included in the business service, forexample, travel, postage, late or minimum usage fees, etc. Also, as usedherein, “business services” refer to non-supply and/or non-productservices, for example, marketing services, linen services, dietaryservices, financial services, support services, etc., performed for,outsourced by, and purchased by an entity. The business servicescomprise, for example, professional services, purchased services, andoutsourced services. The business services encompass a large demographiccomprising, for example, temporary staffing services, housekeepingservices, laundry services, document management services, food services,lawn maintenance services, transportation services, etc.

Also, as used herein, “business service transactions” refer totransactions, for example, financial transactions associated withbusiness services provided by a vendor. The business servicetransactions comprise, for example, professional service transactions,purchased service transactions, and outsourced service transactionsbetween an entity and a vendor. The business service transactions vary,for example, by people, number of man hours, overtime, classification ofservices, payer mixes, etc. Also, as used herein, the term “invoice”refers to a commercial document issued by a vendor to an entity,relating to a business service transaction between the vendor and theentity and indicating the business services the vendor provided to theentity and agreed prices. Also, as used herein, “invoice analytics”refers to systematic collection, interpretation, and analysis ofmultiple invoices of an entity for identifying trends, purchasepatterns, outliers, variations, quality and utilization improvementopportunities, etc., for proactive management of business services spendof the entity over a predefined duration of time, for example, a month,a quarter, a year, etc. The entity can engage multiple vendors for thesame business services or for different business services at any pointin time.

The method disclosed herein employs an invoice analytics systemcomprising at least one processor configured to execute computer programinstructions for analyzing business service transactional invoice dataof an entity and performing invoice analytics for the entity in realtime. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system is implementedwithin a data lake architecture where data inputted to and generated bythe invoice analytics system is stored in a data storage repositorycalled a data lake as disclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 27.In another embodiment, the invoice analytics system is implemented as aweb based platform hosted on a server or a network of servers accessiblevia a network, for example, the internet, a wireless network, a mobiletelecommunication network, etc. In another embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system is implemented in a cloud computing environment. Asused herein, “cloud computing environment” refers to a processingenvironment comprising configurable computing physical and logicalresources, for example, networks, servers, storage media, virtualmachines, applications, services, etc., and data distributed over thenetwork, for example, the internet. The cloud computing environmentprovides on-demand network access to a shared pool of the configurablecomputing physical and logical resources.

In another embodiment, the invoice analytics system comprises a softwareapplication downloadable and usable on a user device, for example, apersonal computer, a tablet computing device, a mobile computer, amobile phone, a smart phone, a portable computing device, a laptop, apersonal digital assistant, a wearable device such as the Google Glass®of Google Inc., the Apple Watch® of Apple Inc., the Android Smartwatch®of Google Inc., etc., a touch centric device, a workstation, a server, aclient device, a portable electronic device, a network enabled computingdevice, an interactive network enabled communication device, a webbrowser, any other suitable computing equipment, combinations ofmultiple pieces of computing equipment, etc., and configured to performfunctions of the invoice analytics system. In another embodiment, theinvoice analytics system is configured as a cloud computing basedplatform implemented as a service for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time. In another embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system is configured as a software as a service (SaaS)business intelligence and analytics platform that performs invoicereconciliation and contract optimization with real time benchmarkingperformed on a monthly basis for spend associated with the businessservices. In another embodiment, the invoice analytics system isimplemented in a parallel computing environment where differentcomputations are performed by the invoice analytics systemsimultaneously.

The invoice analytics system receives 101 multiple contracts comprisingagreement information on business service transactions between theentity and one or more vendors from one or more data sources. As usedherein, “contracts” refers to service agreements made between a vendorand the entity. The data sources can be any storage area or medium usedfor storing data and files. The data sources comprise, for example,local databases of the entity, vendor databases, etc. In an embodiment,the invoice analytics system receives multiple contracts in the form ofphysical documents and/or electronic documents, for example, as portabledocument format (pdf) files, Microsoft® Word document files of MicrosoftCorporation, etc., from one or more data sources. The physicaldocuments, for example, paper based documents are scanned using ascanner and stored as scanned documents in the data sources. In anembodiment, the invoice analytics system receives the contracts on atimely basis, for example, a monthly basis. The invoice analytics systemcreates a contract terms database for storing the received contracts byvendor.

The invoice analytics system scans the received contracts in thecontract terms database by vendor and extracts 102 contract line itemdata from the received contracts. As used herein, “contract line itemdata” refers to units of business service transaction informationcomprising, for example, pricing information, payment structure, etc.,separately identified and present in lines of the received contractsagreed upon by the entity and the vendors. The contract line item datacomprises, for example, pricing, operational information, qualityinformation, payment information such as payment structure, etc., of thebusiness service transactions recited in the received contracts. Thecontract line item data further comprises, for example, financial datathat impacts line item pricing for business services spend of theentity. The invoice analytics system creates 102 a contract line itemdatabase for storing the extracted contract line item data. The contractline item database is created through both the extraction of thecontract line item data, for example, line item pricing details in theterms of each contract and also through a manual review of each contractby reading each contract to ensure that financial terms that existembedded in each contract and separate from the line item pricing areanalyzed and formatted in the contract line item database for aquantitative analysis. The invoice analytics system performs a detailedsubject matter expert analysis of each contract to extract contractterms into a financial analysis format. The invoice analytics systemperforms optical character recognition on the financial analysis formatand inputs the contract line item data into the contract line itemdatabase. The invoice analytics system analyzes the received contractsindividually and extracts relevant contract line item data from each ofthe received contracts in a predefined pattern using one or more dataextraction processes as disclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2.The data extraction processes comprise, for example, a full extractionprocess or an incremental extraction process. The invoice analyticssystem transforms the contracts for the business services in thecontract terms database into the contract line item database thatcomprises the extracted contract line item data and additional financialterms for billing of the business services to the entity to ensure thatmonthly invoices corresponding to the business services are reconciledto the contracts and billing errors and off-contract business servicespend line items are identified. The invoice analytics system ensuresthat the entity does not get overcharged and automatic cost controls ofthe entity for the business services spend are in place. A genericcomputer using a generic program cannot extract contract line item datafrom the received contracts and create a contract line item database forstoring the extracted contract line item data in accordance with themethod steps disclosed above.

The invoice analytics system transforms 103 the extracted contract lineitem data into a quick view format and generates and renders a contractquick view interface on a graphical user interface (GUI) of an entitydevice, for example, one or more of a personal computer, a tabletcomputing device, a mobile computer, a mobile phone, a smartphone, etc.As used herein “quick view format” refers to a format of rendering theextracted contract line item data as a pop-up window. The contract quickview interface displays the extracted contract line item data of thereceived contracts in the quick view format on the GUI of the entitydevice for optimal review, interpretation, comparison, and statisticalanalysis. In an embodiment of the quick view format, the contract quickview interface does not have a header, a footer, or navigation areas.The invoice analytics system renders the contract quick view interfacefor viewing in a dashboard on the GUI of the entity device as anadditional tab where the extracted contract line item data from thecontracts is made available. The invoice analytics system creates thequick view format from an abstraction of a contract and generates thecontract quick view interface that is connected to the dashboard on theGUI of the entity device. The contract quick view interface allows thecontracts to be easily located and viewed, thereby precluding a manualprocess of reviewing the contracts. A generic computer using a genericprogram cannot transform the extracted contract line item data into aquick view format and generate and render the contract quick viewinterface on the GUI of the entity device for optimal review,interpretation, comparison, statistical analysis, and reconciliation ofthe monthly invoices with line item detail in accordance with the methodsteps disclosed above.

The invoice analytics system receives 104 multiple invoices comprisingthe business service transactional invoice data corresponding to thebusiness service transactions between the entity and one or more vendorsfrom one or more data sources. The data sources can be any storage areaor medium used for storing data and files. The data sources comprise,for example, local databases of the entity, vendor databases, etc. Theentity may send the invoices to the invoice analytics system viaelectronic mail (email) on a monthly basis or upload the invoices intothe invoice analytics system via a secure file platform. The invoiceanalytics system aggregates 104 the business service transactionalinvoice data by vendor and by a predefined time duration, for example,by a month, in an invoice aggregation database. In an embodiment, theinvoice analytics system receives multiple invoices of the entity in theform of physical documents and/or electronic documents, for example, asportable document format (pdf) files, Microsoft® Word document files ofMicrosoft Corporation, etc., from one or more data sources. The physicaldocuments, for example, paper based documents are scanned using ascanner and stored as scanned documents in the data sources. Vendorstypically submit invoices for approval and payment to the entity eachmonth. In an embodiment, an administrator of the invoice analyticssystem uploads the invoices and the contracts into the invoice analyticssystem. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system receives theinvoices on a timely basis, for example, a monthly basis.

The invoice analytics system scans the received invoices and extractsand segments 105 invoice line item data from the aggregated businessservice transactional invoice data. As used herein, “invoice line itemdata” refers to units of business service transaction information, forexample, pricing information, payment structure, etc., separatelyidentified and present in lines of the received invoices. The invoiceline item data comprises, for example, pricing, operational information,quality information, and payment information such a payment structure ofthe business service transactions between the entity and the vendors.The invoice analytics system extracts the invoice line item data fromthe received invoices to ensure invoice accuracy with the terms andconditions of the corresponding contracts. The invoice analytics systemanalyzes the received invoices comprising the business servicetransactional invoice data individually and extracts the relevantinvoice line item data from each of the received invoices in apredefined pattern using one or more data extraction processes. The dataextraction processes comprise, for example, a full extraction process oran incremental extraction process.

The invoice analytics system performs optical character recognition toextract and segment the invoice line item data from the receivedinvoices using a customized optical character recognition tool asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2. In an embodiment, theoptical character recognition tool is specially programmed by the vendorto extract the invoice line item data in a template format within theoptical character recognition tool in such a way that the invoice lineitem data can be reconciled to the contract line item database and/orthe contract terms database in real time. A generic computer using ageneric program does not have the functionality to use an opticalcharacter recognition tool that is specially programmed by the vendor toextract the invoice line item data in a template format within theoptical character recognition tool in such a way that the invoice lineitem data can be reconciled to the contract line item database and/orthe contract terms database in real time. The invoice analytics systemcreates 105 an invoice line item database for storing the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data. The invoice analytics systemtransforms the invoices for the business services in the invoiceaggregation database into the invoice line item database that comprisesthe extracted invoice line item data and additional billing of thebusiness services to the entity to ensure that monthly invoicescorresponding to the business services are reconciled to the contractsand billing errors and off-contract business service spend line itemsare identified. The invoice analytics system aggregates the invoice lineitem data by month to allow the invoice analytics system to performcategory specific analytics on the invoice line item data to analyzeutilization and performance measurements and key performance indicators(KPIs). The invoice analytics system therefore transforms invoices fromflat one dimensional data to robust analyzable data. In an embodiment,the invoice analytics system extracts the invoice line item data intothe same financial analysis format as the contract line item data.

Consider an example where an entity receives an invoice comprisingbusiness service transactional invoice data from a vendor, for example,a legal service provider such as a law firm for business services, forexample, legal processing services provided to the entity for apredefined duration of time, for example, a month as disclosed below:

5 hours senior partner time at $250 an hour for the Smith Case—$1,250

3 hours of junior partner time at $150 an hour for the Smith Case—$450

10 hours of paralegal time at $75 an hour for the Smith Case—$750

Postage for the Smith Case $2.70—$2.70

Copies for the Smith Case $92—$92

Deposition Transcription for the Smith Case $1,410—$1,410

15 hours senior partner time at $250 an hour for the Travis Case—$3,750

8 hours of junior partner time at $150 an hour for the TravisCase—$1,200

19 hours of paralegal time at $75 an hour for the Travis Case—$1,425

Postage for the Travis Case $165—$165

Copies for the Travis Case $297—$297

Invoice Total for December 2016—$10,791.70

The invoice analytics system extracts and segments the following invoiceline item data, for example, number of man hours spent by each of thepartners and paralegals in the law firm on a certain legal case of theentity, postage charges for the legal documents generated, charges forcopies of the legal documents, etc., from the business servicetransactional invoice data of the above invoice. A generic computerusing a generic program cannot extract and segment invoice line itemdata from the aggregated business service transactional invoice data andcreate an invoice line item database for storing the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data in accordance with the method stepsdisclosed above.

With one click automation, the invoice analytics system identifies,details, and outlines 106 billing pricing errors, contract complianceerrors, and off-contract business service items from the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data with reference to the extractedcontract line item data for predefined time intervals automatically inreal time using the created invoice line item database and the createdcontract line item database. As used herein, “billing pricing errors”refers to errors in pricing details of a line item in an invoice. Also,as used herein, “contract compliance errors” refer to misalignment ofthe invoice line item data from the received invoices with the contractline item data from the received contracts. The contract complianceerrors comprise errors in the invoice line item data of the invoicesthat do not comply with the terms in the contracts. Also, as usedherein, “off-contract business service items” refer to invoice line itemdata for business services that do not have a reference in the contract.The spend of the entity for the off-contract business service items isreferred as “an off-contract spend”. The invoice analytics system keepsa tab on the off-contract spend of the entity by identifying theoff-contract business service items.

The invoice analytics system identifies and highlights computationerrors in the invoice and errors resulting from contract non-compliancein the invoice and generates a reconciliation report. The invoiceanalytics system flags the off-contract business service items in thereconciliation report. The invoice analytics system renders thereconciliation report on the graphical user interface (GUI) of theentity device. The reconciliation report allows the entity to adjust anyadvance payments made to the vendor in previous invoices. For example,on a monthly basis, the invoice analytics system validates invoicepricing in accordance with a contract made with a specific vendor. Theinvoice analytics system performs a retrospective review of the lineitems of the business services. That is, the invoice analytics systemreviews invoice line item data of invoices of the last 18 to 24 months.The retrospective review provides an in-depth analysis of the receivedinvoices for uncovering contract pricing errors, off-contract businessservice line items that need to be under the contract, unique trends andpatterns, and utilization of business services that need to be provided,for example, to a department director for cost improvement. A genericcomputer using a generic program cannot identify, detail, and outlinebilling pricing errors, contract compliance errors, and off-contractbusiness service items from the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data with reference to the extracted contract line item data forpredefined time intervals automatically in real time using the createdinvoice line item database and the created contract line item database.

The invoice analytics system rectifies 107 the identified, detailed, andoutlined billing pricing errors and contract compliance errors, andresolves the off-contract business service items in real time toreconcile the received invoices in accordance with the receivedcontracts for the predefined time intervals. Reconciling the receivedinvoices comprises comparing the received invoices with the receivedcontracts, recording any discrepancies or exceptions between thereceived invoices and the received contracts, and rectifying errors. Theinvoice analytics system identifies the received contracts thatcorrelate to the received invoices. The invoice analytics systemidentifies the contract line item data in the contract line itemdatabase that corresponds to the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data in the invoice line item database. The invoice analyticssystem compares or matches the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata in the received invoices with the contract line item data in thereceived contracts to determine invoice accuracy for performing realtime corrective actions prior to approving the received invoices forpayment. For example, the invoice analytics system reconciles theinvoices with the pricing and fees charged on each invoice thatidentifies errors in billing. The invoice analytics system reconcilesindividual invoice line item data with individual contract line itemdata in real time and benchmarks the individual invoice line item datathrough a benchmarking database that identifies cost reductionopportunities.

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system extracts the invoice lineitem data into a summary view to allow the invoice analytics system toreconcile each invoice accurately and in real time with thecorresponding contract. The invoice analytics system identifies pricingerrors, price reduction opportunities, and utilization improvementopportunities. As each invoice is reconciled, the invoice analyticssystem either approves the invoice for payment, or if an error isidentified, the invoice analytics system sends the invoice back to thevendor with the reconciliation report that outlines the error and thecontract line item data included in the reconciliation report to ensurea rapid resolution and a corrected invoice. The invoice analytics systemreconciles the received invoices in accordance with the receivedcontracts at predefined time intervals, for example, monthly. In anembodiment, the invoice analytics system performs automatedreconciliation where the identified contract line item data is matchedwith the invoice line item data monthly within tolerances defined in theinvoice analytics system, and refers any exceptions raised to a manualreconciliation process involving an administrator of the invoiceanalytics system. A generic computer using a generic program cannotrectify the identified, detailed, and outlined billing pricing errorsand contract compliance errors, and resolve the off-contract businessservice items in real time to reconcile the received invoices inaccordance with the received contracts for the predefined time intervalsin accordance with the method steps disclosed above.

On reconciliation of the received invoices, the invoice analyticssystem, in communication with an operational system of the entity,performs 108 invoice analytics on the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data with supplementary data for price and utilizationoptimization of the business services and benchmarking in real time forcost savings. As used herein, “operational system” refers to a system ofthe entity that conducts day-to-day transactions. The operational systemis, for example, an accounts payable system, an electronic medicalrecord system of an entity, for example, a health center, etc. Also, asused herein, “utilization” refers to an extent to which the entity usesa business service over a predefined duration of time, for example, in amonth. The invoice analytics system measures the utilization of thebusiness services as a frequency of the business service transactionsbetween the entity and the vendors over a predefined duration of time.As used herein, “price and utilization optimization” refers tooptimization of prices agreed upon by the entity in the contracts withthe vendors for the business services and optimization of utilization ofthe business services for cost savings and optimal functioning of theentity. The supplementary data comprises, for example, tentative quotes,pricing details, annual reports of other entities that are competitorsof the entity, etc.

The invoice analytics system receives supplementary data comprisingpricing data and utilization data from users of the invoice analyticssystem along with demographics of the entity. The invoice analyticssystem compares the extracted and segmented invoice line item data withthe supplementary data to determine and explore avenues for price andutilization optimization. The invoice analytics system uses theextracted and segmented invoice line item data from the receivedinvoices to perform an extensive analysis on the business serviceutilization by month and in real time. Also, as used herein,“benchmarking” refers to comparing business processes and performancemetrics of the entity to industry standards. Also, as used herein, “costsavings” refers to savings in the business service transactions that theentity can incur based on the invoice analytics. Through a vendorspecific or business service professional specific analysis, the invoiceanalytics system identifies line item opportunities for better pricing.

As a part of the invoice analytics, the invoice analytics system, incommunication with an external database, computes 108 a cost savings forthe entity based on analytics criteria. The analytics criteria comprise,for example, the identified billing pricing errors, the contractcompliance errors, the off-contract business service items, and in anembodiment, cost reduction opportunities and utilization optimizationopportunities per extracted and segmented invoice line item data. Theinvoice analytics system uses the external database to analyze themonthly invoice line item data with similar contract pricing to identifyprice reduction opportunities. The basis for calculating the costsavings of the entity is annual utilization of a business service by theentity multiplied by savings on identified line item pricing errors andsavings on identified off-contract business service items or new pricingfrom benchmarking savings and credits obtained from overcharges. If theinvoice analytics system identifies billing pricing errors, the contractcompliance errors, and off-contract business service items, the invoiceanalytics system generates the reconciliation report that highlights theerrors in the reconciliation and computes an erroneous amount charged bythe vendor for the business services. If the invoice analytics systemidentifies cost reduction opportunities and utilization optimizationopportunities in the business service transactions on performing theinvoice analytics, the invoice analytics system computes the costsavings that can be achieved by utilizing the cost reductionopportunities and the utilization optimization opportunities. Consideran example where a vendor provides a business service such as a copierrepair service to an entity. The invoice analytics system identifiesthat the repair charge hourly rate is contracted at $100 per hour, whilethe vendor is invoicing $125 per hour. The identification of the billingpricing error is a cost reduction opportunity. The invoice analyticssystem, accordingly, computes the reduction in the charges for the lineitem hourly rate of the business service and examines the effect of thecost savings in the invoice while reconciling the invoice. The invoiceanalytics system generates and renders a cost savings opportunity reportillustrating the cost savings on the graphical user interface of theentity device.

The invoice analytics system performs invoice analytics on the extractedand segmented invoice line item data combined with data inputs fromexternal databases that identify trends, variations, quality, andutilization opportunities, etc., for proactive monthly management ofbusiness service transactions. The data inputs comprise, for example,the historic trends of the entity for a predefined duration of time forthe business services, the industry standards for the predefinedduration of time for the business services, etc. In an embodiment, theinvoice analytics system extracts the invoice line item data and thecontract line item data for the business services into multiple datafields for enhanced review, interpretation, comparison, and statisticalanalysis of the pricing and utilization of the specific businessservices. In this embodiment, the invoice analytics system analyzes theextracted invoice line item data and the extracted contract line itemdata via the data fields using analytical tools and expert inputsreceived via a graphical user interface, identifies contract complianceerrors and real time price reduction opportunities, estimates one ormore factors, for example, the increase in utilization of a specificbusiness service in real time, and determines the impact of the currentpricing on rebates, credits, and other financial incentives agreed,based on the analysis. The invoice analytics system performs invoiceanalytics on the invoices of a vendor corresponding to a previous monthand a current month to ensure that no invoice line item is charged morethan once by the vendor in the invoices. The invoice analytics systemanalyzes invoice line item data of the current month to that of theprevious month to ensure that there is no duplicate invoicing for thesame business services in both months.

As a part of performing the invoice analytics, in an embodiment, theinvoice analytics system further benchmarks the contract line item dataand the invoice line item data using the benchmarking database in realtime for determining avenues for cost savings in the business servicetransactions. The invoice analytics system uses the contract line itemdata and the invoice line item data to establish a pricing benchmark inreal time and stores the established pricing benchmark, for example, inthe benchmarking database. The invoice analytics system uses the pricingbenchmark to analyze the received invoices with the pricing and feescharged on each of the received invoices to identify opportunities toreduce costs through better pricing and utilization. The invoiceanalytics system extracts the invoice line item data from the receivedinvoices for performing ongoing benchmarking. The invoice analyticssystem utilizes the invoice line item data and performance data that isautomatically captured from the received invoices and then compares thepricing and performance against industry benchmarks in real time. In anembodiment, the invoice analytics system performs best practicesbenchmarking where the entity compares itself with other entities thatthe entity aspires to be and identifies best practices that help toimprove the entity. In another embodiment, the invoice analytics systemperforms peer benchmarking where the entity compares performance metricsof itself with performance metrics of competitors to ensure that theentity is competitive with the competitors.

The invoice analytics system measures progress of the business servicesover a period of time, easily identifies changes to the business serviceperformance, and takes necessary corrective actions to get the serviceand pricing performance back on track. The invoice analytics system alsoidentifies cost and utilization improvements based upon benchmarkingresults and provides specific actions that yield financial improvementresults. As a part of performing the invoice analytics, in anembodiment, the invoice analytics system performs a comparative analysisof the extracted and segmented invoice line item data from the receivedinvoices of each of two or more vendors in a similar category of thebusiness services at the predefined time intervals for determiningpricing gaps between the vendors and cost reduction and utilizationoptimization opportunities per the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data. The invoice analytics system compares each invoice line itemof the invoices of the vendors to determine which vendor is moreexpensive and which vendor is less expensive per invoice line item data.A generic computer using a generic program cannot perform invoiceanalytics on the extracted and segmented invoice line item data withsupplementary data for price and utilization optimization of businessservices and benchmarking in real time for cost savings in accordancewith the method steps disclosed above.

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system generates a utilizationvalidation interface that links to the operational system of the entityfor validating utilization of the business services on thereconciliation of the received invoices. Consider an example where avendor such as a healthcare service provider whose utilization by anentity, for example, a person is measured as the number of visits by theperson to the health care service provider, the number of prescriptiondrugs taken, the number of days the person was hospitalized, etc. Theinvoice analytics system validates the utilization of the businessservices, for example, healthcare services using the utilizationvalidation interface that links to the operational system, for example,a registration system of the entity. In an embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system renders the utilization validation interface on thegraphical user interface (GUI) of the entity device when the entityinvoices another entity for the business services performed.

The invoice analytics system validates the utilization of the businessservices by the entity by comparing the number of times the businessservice transactions with a vendor has a taken place according to thereceived invoices over a predefined duration of time, for example, amonth, with records in the operational system of the entity. Consider anexample where a hospital outsources lithotripsy services to a vendor,for example, an outsourced service provider. The outsourced serviceprovider invoices the hospital for the lithotripsy services on a monthlybasis by the number of patients who have utilized the lithotripsyservices. The invoice analytics system generates a utilizationvalidation interface that allows the invoice analytics system tovalidate the invoiced lithotripsy services with the actual number oflithotripsy services performed on specific patients named in theinvoice. The actual number of patients registered for lithotripsyservices is available in the operational system, for example, theregistration system of the entity. The invoice analytics system performsutilization validation of the business services to analyze the necessityof the entity to procure the business services, and to measureappropriateness and efficiency of the vendors in providing the businessservices on concurrent and retrospective bases. A generic computer usinga generic program cannot generate the utilization validation interfacethat links to an operational system of the entity for validatingutilization of the business services on the reconciliation of thereceived invoices in accordance with the method steps disclosed above.

The invoice analytics system generates 109 an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report comprising graphical datarepresentations of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, andpredictive analytics for the entity over the predefined time duration atthe predefined time intervals based on the invoice analytics of theextracted and segmented invoice line item data. As used herein,“graphical data representation” refers to a representation of data inthe form of visual analytics comprising, for example, charts, graphs,etc. The invoice analytics system provides data visualization of variousbusiness intelligence spend patterns on a monthly basis directly fromthe invoices of the vendors. The generated invoice analytics reportprovides insight into the pricing or purchased service spend andutilization of the business services with invoice line item data in realtime to allow the entity to monitor and measure the vendors' currentbusiness service and pricing performance and take necessary correctiveactions to get the business service and the pricing performance back ontrack. For example, the invoice analytics system analyzes the purchasepatterns on a monthly basis from the received invoices to create charts,graphs, and “what-if” scenario modeling comprising, for example, monthto month comparisons, high spend items, and new item spend. The invoiceanalytics system provides continuous improvement insights into multiplebusiness services comprising, for example, information technologyservices, human resources, facilities, clinical revenue cycles,marketing, etc. The interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report allows a user of the invoice analytics system to trackmonthly business service spend trends by line item. A generic computerusing a generic program cannot generate an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report comprising graphical datarepresentations of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, andpredictive analytics for the entity over the predefined time duration atthe predefined time intervals based on the invoice analytics of theextracted and segmented invoice line item data in accordance with themethod steps disclosed above. In an embodiment, the invoice analyticssystem transmits the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report to the entity, for example, via electronic mail(email). In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system reconstructs theinvoice line item data into cost analytics to capture variations,utilization patterns, and other trends that provide insights to anentity for operational performance improvements.

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system generates a feed reportcomprising the extracted and segmented invoice line item data bycategory of the business services, by the vendor, and by the predefinedtime duration, for example, a month. The invoice analytics systemaggregates business service transactional invoice data of each of thereceived invoices corresponding to a vendor during a specific month andextracts the invoice line item data during that specific month from theaggregated business service transactional invoice data. In anembodiment, the invoice analytics system extracts the invoice line itemdata during the specific month and aggregates the extracted invoice lineitem data by invoice as well as in total for the month. The invoiceanalytics system generates a feed report and performs invoice analyticson the invoice line item data aggregated by month and by the receivedinvoice. The feed report helps the entity to build a business serviceitem master data table for the business services similar to an itemmaster data table for products. The invoice analytics system computes atotal spend for each of the business services over the predefined timeduration, for example, a month, using the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data and renders the computed total spend in thegenerated interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report.The invoice analytics system, therefore, provides complete visibilityinto the invoices, the invoice line item data, and spend of the entityin real time and by month, and provides a decision making platform thatmanages and optimizes the spend of the entity. Since business servicesspend is, for example, about 40% to about 50% of an entity's overallspend, the invoice analytics system provides complete line itemvisibility into the business services spend.

On implementing the method disclosed herein, the end result is atangible analysis of business service transactions between an entity andone or more vendors and performance of invoice analytics for the entityin real time. The method disclosed is an automated process of managingthe business service transactions between the entity and one or morevendors. The invoice analytics system, implementing the method disclosedherein, validates the invoice line item data and the contract line itemdata in real time. The invoice analytics system extracts the invoiceline item data from the received invoices using optical characterrecognition and an extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation byinvoice, by month, by vendor, etc. The invoice analytics systemaggregates the extracted and segmented invoice line item data for apredefined duration of time, for example, a month, and generates acomprehensive monthly view of specific invoice line item data to analyzespecific spend of the entity. The invoice analytics system generates afeed report that is an interface for an operational or financial systemof the entity to provide accuracy on the invoice line item data bymonth, by vendor, and by category of the business services, and to allowthe entity to develop the line item data for the business services. Theinvoice analytics system provides visibility of the invoice line itemdata on a monthly basis through a dynamic visual display of keyperformance indicators or indices in the form of the interactive,dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report. The invoice analyticssystem aggregates and segments the monthly invoice line item data byline item to provide visibility into effective utilization of thebusiness services to avoid oversight and ensure effective management ofthe business services. The interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report provides line item visibility and utilization trendreports of the business services. The invoice analytics system computesthe total spend of each of the business services over a month andrenders the computed total spend in the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report. The invoice analytics system alsobenchmarks the contract line item data and the invoice line item datafor cost savings opportunities of the entity in real time using abenchmarking database.

The data inputted to the invoice analytics system, for example, theinvoices received from the vendors, the contracts established betweenthe entity and the vendors, etc., is transformed, processed, andexecuted by an algorithm in the invoice analytics system. The invoiceanalytics system transforms the contract line item data extracted fromthe contracts into a quick view format and generates the contract quickview interface as disclosed above. The invoice analytics systemprocesses the business service transactional invoice data in theinvoices for the business services by vendor and aggregates the businessservice transactional invoice data of multiple invoices by month, forexample, using optical character recognition. The invoice analyticssystem extracts and segments invoice line item data from the aggregatedbusiness service transactional invoice data using optical characterrecognition and extract, transform, and load (ETL) operations asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2. The invoice analyticssystem aggregates the extracted and segmented invoice line item data bymonth and by vendor and generates aggregated monthly invoice line itemdata.

The invoice analytics system transforms the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data into customized templates by vendor into a feedreport. The invoice analytics system also creates a category specificdetail report and renders vendor specific details as a part of the feedreport. The invoice analytics system identifies and measures keyperformance indicators, for example, availability of the vendor,downtime of the vendor, time for completion of the business services,etc., generates summary reports by category and by vendor, and rendersthe key performance indicators (KPIs) and the summary reports on thegraphical user interface of the entity device. The invoice analyticssystem performs a comparative analysis of two or more vendors in thesame category based on the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system transforms theextracted and segmented invoice line item data into customized templatesby vendor into a database, for example, a structured query language(SQL) database. Using the SQL database, the invoice analytics systemcreates category and vendor specific detailed reports, KPIs, and summaryreports by category and vendor. For multiple vendors in the samecategory, the invoice analytics system performs a comparative analysisby invoice line item data using the SQL database.

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system uses the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data by vendor to generate a quality metricscore to gauge the performance of the vendor in performing the businessservices. The invoice analytics system generates the quality metricscore of the performance of the business services over a predeterminedduration of time based on the analysis of the extracted contract lineitem data and/or the extracted and segmented invoice line item data. Inanother embodiment, the invoice analytics system also dynamicallygenerates a risk score by category of the business services, by vendors,and by the number and type of billing errors and contract complianceerrors using the extracted and segmented invoice line item data. Therisk score reflects the errors and opportunities. The invoice analyticssystem transforms the extracted and segmented invoice line item datainto graphical data representations of purchase patterns, outliers,variations, and predictive analytics for the entity over a predefinedtime duration in the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report. The invoice analytics system transforms the extractedand segmented invoice line item data extracted from monthly invoicesinto customized data insights, visual analytics, utilization trends, andreal time intelligence.

The method disclosed herein provides an improvement in computer relatedtechnology related to analyzing business service transactional invoicedata of an entity and performing invoice analytics for the entity inreal time as follows. On implementing the method disclosed herein by theinvoice analytics system, the invoice analytics system automates theprocess of reconciliation of invoices of the entity in accordance withcorresponding contracts and avoids significant manual efforts in runninginternal reports that do not have access to the business servicetransactional invoice data in the invoices. The invoice analytics systemalso creates the contract terms database for every vendor specificcontract established by the entity with the vendors and aggregates thebusiness service transactional invoice data of the received invoices inthe invoice aggregation database by vendor and by a predefined timeduration, for example, a month. Using the contract terms database andthe invoice aggregation database, the invoice analytics system extractsthe contact line item data and the invoice line item data respectively,and stores the extracted contract line item data in the contract lineitem database and the extracted and segmented invoice line item data inthe invoice line item database. The invoice analytics system reconcilesthe invoice line item data in accordance with the contract line itemdata within minutes. During reconciliation, the invoice analytics systemidentifies whether the invoice line item data is in the contract usingthe contract quick view interface. If the invoice line item data is inthe contract, the invoice analytics system verifies whether the pricinginformation of the business service in the invoice is coherent with thepricing information for the business service in the contract. If thepricing information in the invoice and the contract are incoherent, theinvoice analytics system corrects the pricing information in theinvoice. If the invoice line item data is not in the contract, theinvoice analytics system indicates to the entity on the graphical userinterface of the entity device to include the invoice line item data inthe contract. The invoice analytics system, in the embodiment of theimplementation as a software as a service (SaaS) platform and a reportgeneration tool, manages the business services by computing a totalspend of each of the business services over the predefined time durationand by measuring utilization of the business services over thepredefined duration of time to reconcile, optimize, and provide realtime intelligence on the cost savings opportunities for the entity.

The method disclosed herein improves the functionality of the computerand provides an improvement in reconciliation of invoices by analysis ofbusiness service transactions between an entity and one or more vendorsand performance of invoice analytics for the entity in real time asfollows, On implementing the method disclosed herein, the invoiceanalytics system is capable, in real time, of identifying billingpricing errors per line item in the invoices received from the vendorsusing the contract terms database, the contract line item database, andthe contract quick view interface that is created from the receivedcontracts of the entity with specific vendors or service providers.Moreover, the invoice analytics system identifies the business serviceline items in the invoice that are not in the contract line itemdatabase, that is, the outliers that should not be billed or the newline items in the invoice that need to be governed by the contract. Theutilization validation interface generated by the invoice analyticssystem allows performance of utilization validation of the businessservices in a reduced amount time instead of validating the receivedinvoices in the operational system separately each time. The invoiceanalytics system extracts the invoice line item data from the receivedinvoices using optical character recognition and extract, transform, andload (ETL) tools and performs the utilization validation of the businessservices by invoice line item data. Furthermore, in an embodiment, whenthe invoice analytics system identifies billing pricing errors andcontract compliance errors in the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data, the invoice analytics system renders the contract quick viewinterface as a pop-up window for optimal review, interpretation,comparison, and statistical analysis of the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data.

To receive contracts from one or more data sources, create the contractterms database by vendor, extract contract line item data from thereceived contracts in the contract terms database, create the contractline item database to store the extracted contract line item data,transform the extracted contract line item data to a quick view formatand generate and render a contract quick view interface, receivemultiple invoices corresponding to the business service transactionsbetween the entity and the vendors from one or more data sources andaggregate business service transactional invoice data of the invoicesreceived from one or more data sources by vendor and by a predefinedtime duration in the invoice aggregation database, extract and segmentthe invoice line item data from the aggregated business servicetransactional invoice data, create the invoice line item database tostore the extracted and segmented invoice line item data, identify,detail, and outline billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors,and off-contract business service items from the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data with reference to the extracted contract lineitem data automatically in real time, rectify the identified, detailed,and outlined billing pricing errors and contract compliance errors,resolve the off-contract business service items, perform the invoiceanalytics, and generate the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report requires ten or more separate computer programs andsubprograms, the execution of which cannot be performed by a personusing a generic computer with a generic program.

The invoice analytics system analyzes the reconciled invoices by vendorto identify opportunities for price and utilization optimization,benchmarking, and cost reduction in real time and, in an embodiment, ona timely basis, for example, a monthly basis. As errors are identified,the invoice analytics system calculates the annual cost savings to theentity for identifying and correcting the invoices, which includes thepricing savings and the resource time to fix the errors. The invoiceanalytics system analyzes the contracts and optimizes the terms of eachcontract to maximize rebates, credits, and incentives based on purchaseor spend and utilization. For example, if a contract calls for rebatesafter a specific threshold is met by a product or a service line, theinvoice analytics system identifies the product or service thresholdcriteria specified in the contract and requests for rebates after thespecific threshold is met by the product or the service line. In anotherexample, if there is a new spend outside of the contract or a higherspend than expected in real time, the invoice analytics systemidentifies these spend patterns in real time and indicates that a newpricing can be implemented for cost savings and/or that amendments tothe existing contract can be made to reflect an approved new purchase orspend. The invoice analytics system reduces the cost of invoicereconciliation for the entity.

In the method disclosed herein, the design and the flow of interactionsbetween the data sources, the invoice analytics system, the operationalsystem of the entity, and the entity device are deliberate, designed,and directed. Every invoice, every contract, etc., the invoice analyticssystem receives is configured by the invoice analytics system to steerthe entity towards a finite set of predictable outcomes. The invoiceanalytics system implements one or more specific computer programs todirect the entity towards a set of end results. The interactionsdesigned by the invoice analytics system allow the invoice analyticssystem to extract the contract line item data from the contracts and theinvoice line item data from the invoices, and from this line item data,through the use of other, separate and autonomous computer programs,reconcile the invoices in accordance with the contracts. This invoicereconciliation is used as a trigger to perform invoice analytics anddetermine purchase patterns, outliers, variations, and predictiveanalytics for the entity over a predefined time duration.

The focus of the method and the invoice analytics system disclosedherein is on an improvement to the computer functionality itself, andnot on economic or other tasks for which a generic computer is used inits ordinary capacity. Accordingly, the method and the invoice analyticssystem disclosed herein are not directed to an abstract idea. Rather,the method and the invoice analytics system disclosed herein aredirected to a specific improvement to the way the invoice analyticssystem operates, embodied in, for example, extraction of contract lineitem data from the contracts, transformation of the extracted contractline item data into a quick view format and generation of the contractquick view interface, extraction and segmentation of the invoice lineitem data from the aggregated business service transactional invoicedata, reconciliation of the received invoices in accordance with thereceived contracts for predefined time intervals in real time,performance of the invoice analytics on the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data, generation of the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report, etc.

FIG. 2 exemplarily illustrates a flow diagram showing extraction ofcontract line item data and invoice line item data performed by theinvoice analytics system for analyzing business service transactionalinvoice data of an entity and performing invoice analytics for theentity in real time. The invoice analytics system receives multipleinvoices from multiple vendors for multiple business services, forexample, linen services, linen cleaning services, regulated wastecleaning services, food services, etc.

The invoice analytics system performs optical character recognition(OCR) 201 on the received invoices and aggregates the business servicetransactional invoice data in the received invoices by vendor, forexample, a linen service provider, a linen cleaning service provider, aregulated waste cleaning service provider, a food service provider,etc., in an invoice aggregation database. The optical characterrecognition 201 performed by the invoice analytics system converts thereceived invoices of different formats into editable and searchabledata. The invoice analytics system extracts and segments invoice lineitem data from the aggregated business service transactional invoicedata using optical character recognition 201. To extract and segment theinvoice line item data, the invoice analytics system performs anextraction, transform, and load (ETL) operation 202 on the aggregatedbusiness service transactional invoice data. The invoice analyticssystem converts the extracted and segmented invoice line item data intoan intermediate format that is ready for transformation processing. Theinvoice analytics system then transforms the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data by applying business rules, cleaning theextracted and segmented invoice line item data, filtering the extractedand segmented invoice line item data based on business rules, splittingthe extracted and segmented invoice line item data, validating theextracted and segmented invoice line item data, etc. The invoiceanalytics system loads the transformed invoice line item data into aprocess database, that is, the invoice line item database 203. Forexample, the invoice analytics system extracts and transforms invoiceheader information of the aggregated business service transactionalinvoice data and loads the invoice header information into anInvoiceHeader table 204 in the invoice line item database 203.

The invoice analytics system receives multiple contracts from vendorsand/or the entity and creates the contract terms database. The invoiceanalytics system extracts contract line item data from the receivedcontracts using optical character recognition 201 and an extraction,transform, and load (ETL) operation 202 and creates the contract lineitem database 205 for storing the extracted contract line item data. Theinvoice analytics system stores the extracted contract line item data ina contracts table 205 a of the contract line item database 205. Theinvoice analytics system, using the extracted invoice header informationof the received invoices, finds the corresponding contract line itemdata from the contract line item database 205. In the invoiceaggregation database, the invoice analytics system aggregates thebusiness service transactional invoice data of the invoices by vendorand allows the extraction and storage of the invoice line item data byvendor in the invoice line item database 203. The invoice line itemdatabase 203 comprises different tables 206, 207, and 208 for storinginvoice line item data of the different vendors. The invoice analyticssystem loads the extracted and segmented invoice line item data to thecorresponding tables 206, 207, and 208 of the vendors. For example, ifthe invoice line item data is extracted and segmented from the invoicesof the linen service provider and the linen cleaning service provider,the invoice analytics system loads the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data into the tables 206 and 207 respectively, correspondingto the linen service provider and the linen cleaning service providerrespectively, in the invoice line item database 203. Similarly, if theinvoice line item data is extracted and segmented from the invoices ofthe regulated waste cleaning service provider, the invoice analyticssystem loads the extracted and segmented invoice line item data into thetable 208 corresponding to the regulated waste cleaning service providerin the invoice line item database 203.

The invoice analytics system generates and renders a summary view of theextracted and segmented invoice line item data on a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an entity device. For generating the summary view,the invoice analytics system loads key performance indicators and otherextracted and segmented invoice line item data into a table, forexample, a LineItemSummary table 209, in the invoice line item database203. The invoice analytics system transforms the extracted contract lineitem data to a quick view format and generates and renders a contractquick view interface on the GUI of the entity device. The invoiceanalytics system reconciles the received invoices of the vendors, forexample, the linen cleaning service provider in accordance with thereceived contracts corresponding to the vendor, for example, the linencleaning service provider at predefined time intervals, for example,monthly.

Based on inputs received from a user, for example, an administrator ofthe invoice analytics system via the entity device, the invoiceanalytics system creates different views and procedures 210 and rendersreports corresponding to the different views and procedures 210 on thegraphical user interface (GUI) of the entity device. The invoiceanalytics system generates a feed report comprising the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data by category of the business services,by vendor, and by a predefined time duration, for example, a month, aquarter, etc. The invoice analytics system creates views for categoryspecific detail reports 210 a, all categories key performance indicators(KPIs) and general detail reports 210 b, and all categories KPIs andsummary reports 210 c stored in the invoice line item database 203. Theinvoice analytics system generates and renders the detail reports 211 bycategory on a reporting portal of the GUI of the entity device. Theinvoice analytics system generates the detail reports 211 from a generaltemplate. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system generates thedetail reports 211 from custom templates, for example, based on thecategory of the business services. The data from the detail reports 211can be extracted into a spreadsheet, for example, a Microsoft® Exceldocument of Microsoft Corporation, etc. The invoice analytics systemperforms invoice analytics on the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data, generates an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report, and renders the interactive, dynamic, and searchableinvoice analytics report across all the categories of the businessservices on the GUI of the entity device, which can be filtered acrossthe categories. The interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report is searchable by service number and business servicesperformed. On performing the invoice analytics, the invoice analyticssystem renders high level KPIs, for example, efficiency of the vendor,utilization of the vendor for the business services, etc., across allthe categories of the business services on a dashboard 212 on the GUI ofthe entity device, which can be filtered across the categories. Theinvoice analytics system also renders the feed report across all thecategories of the business services on the GUI of the entity device,which can be filtered across categories. In an embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system renders links on the GUI to access the categoryspecific detail reports 210 a.

FIGS. 3A-3B exemplarily illustrate a flowchart comprising the stepsperformed by the invoice analytics system for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time. The invoice analytics system receives acontract, that is, a business service agreement, from a data sourcecorresponding to a vendor, for example, an outsourced purchased serviceprovider, and reviews the contract for all pricing and financialagreement terms to be extracted using optical character recognition, ormanually, or through a custom algorithm executed by the invoiceanalytics system. The pricing and financial agreement terms comprise,for example, increase in consumer price index, other agreement termsthat impact line item pricing of a business service, for example, aprofessional or purchased service. The invoice analytics system converts301 the pricing and financial agreement terms in the contract into thecontract line item database 205 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2, byline item. The invoice analytics system builds the contract line itemdatabase 205 to store the business service contracting terms per lineitem to remove manual intervention in reviewing the contract. Theinvoice analytics system receives multiple invoices from the vendor andaggregates the business service transactional invoice data of theinvoices for a predetermined duration of time. The invoice analyticssystem extracts 302 invoice line item data of the business services frompast invoices, that is, invoices from past months, for example, about 18to 24 months using optical character recognition. The invoice analyticssystem builds 303 a custom invoice line item database 203 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2, from historical monthly invoice line item data ofthe business services. The invoice analytics system converts historicalline item service pricing and cost details into the invoice line itemdatabase 203. The invoice analytics system builds the invoice line itemdatabase 203 to store the invoice line item data per line item to removemanual intervention in reconciling the received invoices with thereceived contract.

The invoice analytics system processes 304 the historical monthlyinvoice line item data stored in the invoice line item database 203through a data warehouse platform where the monthly invoice line itemdata is analyzed with reference to the contract line item data. Theinvoice analytics system audits the invoice line item data against thecontract line item data for the corresponding business service providedby the vendor. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system initiatesthe audit on receiving a one click action, for example, a push of abutton, from a user, for example, an administrator of the invoiceanalytics system. The invoice analytics system identifies 305retrospective pricing errors and off-contract business service items andgenerates a reconciliation report specific to the invoice line itemdata. The invoice analytics system also generates a cost savingsopportunity report on identifying the retrospective pricing errors andthe off-contract business service items. The invoice analytics systemcorrects 306 the pricing errors, obtains credits from the vendor for theovercharges, and facilitates negotiation of the off-contract businessservice items with the vendor. Based on the negotiation, the invoiceanalytics system introduces 306 the off-contract business service itemsin the contract and facilitates drafting of an updated contract for theongoing audit of the invoice line item data with the updated contract.The invoice analytics system refreshes the contract terms database andthe contract line item database 205 with the updated contract for theongoing audit.

The invoice analytics system generates 307 a retrospective utilizationreport specific to the invoice line item data that identifiesvariations, top business services spend items, and compares theutilization of the business services within the entity and with similarvendors for optimization of the utilization of the business services.The invoice analytics system performs invoice analytics on the invoiceline item data with reference to the contract line item data andvisually displays insights of utilization of the different businessservice line items by specific business service. The invoice analyticssystem performs spend monitoring for the business service line itemsover time and cost control for corrective action, contract negotiation,and business service line item utilization improvement. Every monthand/or quarter, the invoice analytics system extracts 308 the invoiceline item data from the invoices and processes the extracted invoiceline item data through the data warehouse platform. The invoiceanalytics system also analyzes 308 the monthly and/or quarterly invoiceline item data with the contract line item data in the contract lineitem database 205 for identification of pricing errors and off-contractbusiness service items in real time during the month and/or quarter.

The invoice analytics system identifies 309 pricing errors andoff-contract business service items in real time during the month and/orthe quarter and generates a reconciliation report specific to theinvoice line item data. The invoice analytics system corrects 310 thepricing errors, obtains credits from the vendor for the overcharges,facilitates negotiation of the off-contract business service items withthe vendor, and introduces the off-contract business service items inthe contract. The invoice analytics system performs 311 invoiceanalytics on the invoice line item data with reference to the contractline item data and visually displays cost savings opportunities, keyperformance indicators, trends, utilization, variations, and feeanalysis, and generates an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report on a monthly or quarterly basis with recommendations onutilization and improvement. The invoice analytics system also generates312 a contracts quick view interface in a dashboard rendered on agraphical user interface of the entity device as an additional tab wherethe extracted contract line item data is made available. The invoiceanalytics system also generates 313 a utilization validation interfaceas an application programming interface to provide the invoice line itemdata to the entity to validate the utilization of the business serviceline items by the entity, when the entity receives revenue from thebusiness services provided by the vendor.

For smooth functioning, an entity, for example, a health centeroutsources and purchases multiple services, for example, a housekeepingservice, a linen cleaning service, a laboratory testing service, adocument management service, a medical gas delivery service, an organprocurement service, a food service, a waste management service, astorage management service, a blood testing service, a legal processingservice, a scope repair service, etc., from multiple vendors. Consideran example where the health center employs the invoice analytics systemfor analyzing business service transactional invoice data of the healthcenter and performing invoice analytics for the health center in realtime. The health center establishes contracts with multiple vendorsbefore the start of the business services by the vendors. The contractscomprise agreement information on the business service transactionsbetween the vendors and the health center. The invoice analytics systemcreates a contract terms database by vendor comprising the receivedcontracts and extracts contract line item data from the receivedcontracts in the contract terms database. The invoice analytics systemcreates a contract line item database 205 for storing the extractedcontract line item data. The invoice analytics system also receivesinvoices from each of the vendors corresponding to the businesstransactions between the health center and the vendors and aggregatesthe business service transactional invoice data of the received invoicesby vendor and by a predefined duration of time, for example, by month,by quarter, etc., in an invoice aggregation database. The invoiceanalytics system extracts and segments invoice line item data from theaggregated business service transactional invoice data and creates aninvoice line item database 203 for storing the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data. The invoice analytics system performsreconciliation of the received invoices in accordance with the receivedcontracts, performs invoice analytics on the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data, and generates an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report based on the invoice analytics asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 1A-1B.

FIG. 4 exemplarily illustrates an invoice 401 comprising businessservice transactional invoice line item data received by the invoiceanalytics system for extracting and segmenting invoice line item data.The invoice 401 is provided to an entity, for example, a health centerby a vendor, for example, a professional service provider. The invoice401 comprises labor expense 402 and reimbursable expenses 403 ofpersonnel performing professional services for the health center. Allthe professional service items under the labor expense 402 and thereimbursable expenses 403 in the invoice 401 constitute the businessservice transactional invoice data. Under the labor expense 402, theprofessional service items comprising, for example, a description of thepersonnel performing the professional services for the health centersuch as name of the personnel, designation of the personnel, the numberof hours each of the personnel has spent on different aspects of theprofessional services and per hour charges of each of the personnel,labor expense per personnel, total labor expense for the professionalservices, etc., constitute the business service transactional invoicedata. Under the reimbursable expenses 403, the professional servicesitems comprising, for example, all reimbursable expenses withcorresponding descriptions such as an example subconsultant firm, datacollection services, project reproduction, etc., constitute the businessservice transactional invoice data. The total of the current invoice 404also constitutes the business service transactional invoice data.

FIGS. 5A-5I exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 501 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 504 exemplarilyillustrated in FIGS. 5B-5C, received from a vendor, for example, a scoperepair service provider to extract and segment invoice line item datafrom business service transactional invoice data of the invoice 504. Asexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5A, the optical character recognitioninterface 501 allows an administrator of the invoice analytics system toconfigure the optical character recognition being performed on thereceived invoice 504. The different features that can be configuredcomprise, for example, layout of the tables that constitute the invoiceline item database 203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2, settings forthe invoice line item data that is to be extracted from the invoice 504,etc. Under a table layout option 502 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5A,the administrator of the invoice analytics system configures differentcolumns in the tables of the invoice line item database 203, headers ofthe columns in each table, a sequence of the columns in each table, etc.As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5A, the administrator of the invoiceanalytics system defines the columns 503 of the table named, forexample, SerialTable as, for example, SerialPickupDate,SeriallnvoiceDate, and SerialTotal in that sequence.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5B, the administrator of the invoiceanalytics system configures different invoice line item data to beextracted from the received invoice 504 in the optical characterrecognition interface 501. For example, the administrator configures theinvoice line item data under the column headers 508 SerialPickupDate,SeriallnvoiceDate, SerialTotal, etc., to be extracted from the receivedinvoice 504. The received invoice 504 is a scanned copy of a physicaldocument. The administrator configures boundaries 506 of a region in theinvoice 504 that has to be searched by the invoice analytics system forextracting the invoice line item data using optical characterrecognition. The optical character recognition interface 501 alsoenumerates different steps 507 to be carried out by the invoiceanalytics system for performing optical character recognition on thereceived invoice 504. The administrator selects the headers 508 of thecolumns under which the invoice line item data has to be extracted fromthe business service transactional invoice data of the received invoice504 using a free text search configuration interface 505 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 5D.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5C, the received invoice 504comprises business service transactional invoice data. The businessservice transactional invoice data in the received invoice 504comprises, for example, a pickup date 509, an invoice date 510, aninvoice total 511, a repair item description 512, approval 513, etc. Theinvoice analytics system highlights regions in the received invoice 504that contain the business service transactional invoice data as definedby the boundaries 506 configured by the administrator of the invoiceanalytics system. For a particular model of a scope repaired by thescope repair service provider, the invoice analytics system identifiesinvoice line item data that falls under the column headersSerialPickupDate, SeriallnvoiceDate, and SerialTotal. As exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 5D, the free text search configuration interface 505is used for configuring parameters corresponding to the search of theidentified invoice line item data, that is, the pickup date 509, theinvoice date 510, the invoice total 511, etc., by the invoice analyticssystem. The free text search configuration interface 505 allows theadministrator of the invoice analytics system to configure a search type514 to a date search as the invoice line item data being searched, forexample, the pickup date 509 and the invoice date 510 are of a date datatype. The free text search configuration interface 505 also allows theadministrator of the invoice analytics system to adjust the boundariesof the region to be searched in the received invoice 504 dynamicallyusing points on a geometrical search area 515. The invoice analyticssystem transforms input received in the free text search configurationinterface 505 into computer program instructions rendered on thegraphical user interface 501 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5E.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5F, the administrator of the invoiceanalytics system configures different invoice line item data to beextracted from the received invoice 504 in the optical characterrecognition interface 501. For example, the administrator configures theinvoice line item data under the column headers 508posRepairItemDescription and PosAppr to be extracted from the receivedinvoice 504. The administrator configures the boundaries 506 of theregion in the received invoice 504 that has to be searched by theinvoice analytics system for extracting the invoice line item data usingoptical character recognition. The invoice analytics system highlightsregions in the received invoice 504 with the business servicetransactional invoice data as per the boundaries 506 configured by theadministrator. For a particular model of the scope repaired by the scoperepair service provider, the invoice analytics system identifies invoiceline item data 512 and 513 that falls under the column headersposRepairItemDescription and PosAppr respectively, as exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 5G. As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5H, the freetext search configuration interface 505 is used for configuringparameters 516 corresponding to the search of the identified invoiceline item data, for example, start of search, end of search, search forcase insensitive, etc., in the received invoice 504 by the invoiceanalytics system. The invoice analytics system transforms input receivedin the free text search configuration interface 505 into computerprogram instructions rendered on the optical recognition interface 501as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 5I.

FIGS. 6A-6B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninvoice 601 received from a vendor, for example, a document managementservice provider, and a table 602 comprising invoice line item data 603extracted from business service transactional invoice data 604 of theinvoice 601 and segmented by the invoice analytics system. Asexemplarily illustrated in FIGS. 6A-6B, the invoice 601 comprisesbusiness service transactional invoice data 604 corresponding to each ofthe business services performed by the document management serviceprovider. The invoice analytics system extracts and segments invoiceline item data 603 from the business service transactional invoice data604 of the invoice 601 into the table 602 using optical characterrecognition and an extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2. As exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 6B, the invoice analytics system identifies businessservice transactional invoice data 604 for waste copies as 1 unit inquantity at a price of −33.75. The invoice analytics system identifiesthe computed amount for total quantity of waste copies as −33.75. Usingoptical character recognition, the invoice analytics system populatesthe table 602 with each of the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata 603, for example, quantity, amount, description of the businessservices, etc. The invoice analytics system also identifies and computesbilling errors in the invoice 601 after populating the table 602 withthe extracted and segmented invoice line item data 603. The table 602 isa part of the invoice line item database 203 exemplarily illustrated inFIG. 2, created by the invoice analytics system.

FIGS. 7A-7B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 701 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 702 received froma vendor, for example, a housekeeping service provider, to extract andsegment invoice line item data 704 from the invoice 702 and populate atable 703 for reconciliation of the received invoice 702. The opticalcharacter recognition interface 701 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 7A,lists electronic documents of the received invoices that are stored inthe invoice aggregation database in a session view panel 707. Theinvoice analytics system extracts and segments invoice line item data704 from the invoice 702 and stores the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data 704 in the invoice line item database 203 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2. The optical character recognition interface 701provides a form view 705 of the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data 704 that is added to the table 703 in the invoice line itemdatabase 203. The form view 705 provides options to an administrator ofthe invoice analytics system to edit the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data 704 before populating the table 703. The opticalcharacter recognition interface 701 also provides a zoom view 706 of theinvoice 702 to view the business service transactional invoice data 708on the electronic document of the invoice 702 clearly. As exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 7B, the administrator of the invoice analyticssystem draws a region around the business service transactional invoicedata 708 in the invoice 702 that has to be extracted by the invoiceanalytics system as the invoice line item data 704.

FIGS. 8A-8C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 701 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 801 received froma vendor, for example, a housekeeping service provider, to extract andsegment invoice line item data 802 from the invoice 801 and populate atable 703 for reconciliation of the received invoice 801. The opticalcharacter recognition interface 701 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 8A,comprises a session view panel 707 and provides a form view 705 and azoom view 706 of the invoice 801 as disclosed in the detaileddescription of FIGS. 7A-7B. FIG. 8B exemplarily illustrates the businessservice transactional invoice data 803 in the invoice 801 from which theinvoice analytics system extracts and segments the invoice line itemdata 802. The invoice analytics system adds the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data 802 to the table 703 as exemplarily illustratedin FIG. 8C, in the invoice line item database 203 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 9A-9B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 701 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 901 received froma vendor, for example, a waste management service provider, to extractand segment invoice line item data 902 from the invoice 901 and populatea table 703 for reconciliation of the received invoice 901. The opticalcharacter recognition interface 701 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 9A,comprises a session view panel 707 and provides a form view 705 of theinvoice 901 as disclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 7A-7B.FIG. 9B exemplarily illustrates the business service transactionalinvoice data 903 in the invoice 901 from which the invoice analyticssystem extracts and segments the invoice line item data 902. The invoiceanalytics system adds the extracted and segmented invoice line item data902 to the table 703 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 9A, in the invoiceline item database 203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 10A-10B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 701 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 1001 receivedfrom a vendor, for example, a waste management service provider, toextract and segment invoice line item data 1002 from the invoice 1001and populate a table 703 for reconciliation of the received invoice1001. The optical character recognition interface 701 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 10A, comprises a session view panel 707 and providesa form view 705 as disclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 7A-7B.FIG. 10B exemplarily illustrates the business service transactionalinvoice data 1003 in the invoice 1001 from which the invoice analyticssystem extracts and segments the invoice line item data 1002. Theinvoice analytics system adds the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data 1002 to the table 703 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 10A, inthe invoice line item database 203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 11A-11B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of an optical characterrecognition interface 701 provided by the invoice analytics system forperforming optical character recognition on an invoice 1101 receivedfrom a vendor, for example, a waste management service provider, toextract and segment invoice line item data and populate a table 703 forreconciliation of the received invoice 1101. The optical characterrecognition interface 701 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 11A, providesa form view 705 as disclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 7A-7B.FIG. 11B exemplarily illustrates the business service transactionalinvoice data 1103 in the invoice 1101 from which the invoice analyticssystem extracts and segments the invoice line item data. The invoiceanalytics system computes previous balances of the waste managementservice provider by invoice using the previously extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data and computes the current adjustments in thebusiness service transactions based on the computed previous balances.The invoice analytics system can perform these computations as theinvoice analytics system is linked to an operational system of theentity. The invoice analytics system stores the previous balances andcurrent adjustments as invoice line item data 1102 in the table 703exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 11A, in the invoice line item database203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 12A-12C exemplarily illustrate screenshots displaying an invoice1201 of a vendor, for example, a storage management service provider, aform 1203 comprising invoice line item data 1204, and a table 1206comprising the invoice line item data 1207 extracted from businessservice transactional invoice data 1202 of the invoice 1201respectively. As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 12A, the invoice 1201comprises business service transactional invoice data 1202 of each ofthe business services performed by the storage management serviceprovider. The invoice analytics system extracts and segments invoiceline item data 1204 from the business service transactional invoice data1202 of the received invoice 1201 into the form 1203 as exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 12B, using optical character recognition and anextract, transform, and load (ETL) operation as disclosed in thedetailed description of FIG. 2. Using optical character recognition, theinvoice analytics system fills the form 1203 with each of the extractedinvoice line item data 1204. The fields in the form 1203 correspond todifferent business service transactional invoice data 1202 in theinvoice 1201, for example, vendor number, vendor name, zip code of thevendor, invoice number, invoice date, etc. The invoice analytics system,using optical character recognition, automatically identifies thebusiness service transactional invoice data 1202 in the invoice 1201,for example, vendor name as vendor ABC, invoice date as Mar. 31, 2017,and invoice amount due as 4747.43 and maps the identified businessservice transactional invoice data 1202 to different fields in the form1203 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 12B, as the invoice line itemdata 1204. By entering the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata 1204 to the different fields in the form 1203, the invoiceanalytics system populates the invoice line item database 203exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 12C exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface 1205 provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninvoice 1201 of a vendor, for example, a storage management serviceprovider, and the table 1206 comprising invoice line item data 1207extracted from the business service transactional invoice data 1202 ofthe invoice 1201 by the invoice analytics system. The invoice analyticssystem identifies the business service transactional invoice data 1202,for example, quantity for trip charge, half day delivery as 2.00. Theinvoice analytics system extracts and segments the invoice line itemdata 1207 from the business service transactional invoice data 1202 ofthe received invoice 1201 into the table 1206 using optical characterrecognition and an extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2. Using optical characterrecognition, the invoice analytics system populates the table 1206 witheach of the extracted invoice line item data 1207. On hovering a cursoron the extracted invoice line item data 1207 in the table 1206, theinvoice analytics system zooms over the extracted invoice line item data1207 to provide a magnified view to an administrator of the invoiceanalytics system.

FIGS. 13A-13C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 1301 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport 1302 generated by the invoice analytics system. The invoiceanalytics system generates the interactive, dynamic, and searchableinvoice analytics report 1302 for multiple vendors of business services,for example, organ procurement services, over a predefined duration oftime, for example, a year, a month, a quarter, etc. The invoiceanalytics system employed by an entity, for example, a health centeranalyzes business service transactions between the health center andorgan procurement service providers and performs invoice analytics forthe health center in real time. As exemplarily illustrated in FIGS.13A-13C, the invoice analytics system generates and renders theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1302 onthe GUI 1301 after performing invoice analytics on invoice line itemdata extracted and segmented from invoices of the organ procurementservice providers and contract line item data extracted from contractsestablished between the health center and the organ procurement serviceproviders. The graphical data representations in the interactive,dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1302 are searchable andcan be filtered by a predefined duration of time, by organ procurementservice providers, by the aggregated business service transactionalinvoice data of the invoices of the organ procurement service providers,by the organ procured, etc. The filters are applied on the graphicaldata representations using drop down menus, radio buttons, an adjustmentbar, etc., provided on the GUI 1301.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIGS. 13A-13C, the invoice analyticssystem renders different graphical data representations, for example, apie chart, bar graphs, etc., of the computed total spend of the healthcenter by a predefined duration of time, for example, a year, by theorgan transported, etc. The trends in the total spend of the healthcenter over the year indicate the purchase patterns of the health centerover the year, the variations in the purchase patterns in procurement ofa particular organ, for example, a heart, a left kidney, a right kidney,a left lung, a right lung, liver, pancreas, etc. Using the trends of thepast years, for example, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, the invoiceanalytics system performs predictive analytics on the purchase patternsand forecasts the purchase patterns per organ in the coming years forthe health center and displays the forecasted purchase patterns asgraphical data representations in the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1302. In an embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system generates and renders a feed report 1303 as a sectionin the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report1302 with the extracted and segmented invoice line item data from thedifferent invoices received from the organ procurement service providersby year, by organ procurement service provider, etc.

FIG. 13B exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of the graphical userinterface (GUI) 1301 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying filters that can be applied on the graphical datarepresentations in the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report 1302. The invoice analytics system provides the filtersto be applied on the graphical data representations in a side panel1304. The invoice analytics system allows a user of the entity device tofilter the graphical data representations based, for example, on apredefined duration of time such as a month, a quarter, a year, etc., onthe different organ procurement providers, etc. Furthermore, the invoiceanalytics system allows the user to view graphical data representationsof the same type, for example, a line graph, or a bar graph, or a piechart, etc. The interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport 1302 is dynamic such that the filters that are applied on thegraphical data representations take effect immediately, that is, in realtime.

FIG. 13C exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of the graphical userinterface (GUI) 1301 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying a selection of filters for filtering the graphical datarepresentations in the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report 1302 and a transformation of the graphical datarepresentations based on the selected filters. When the user of theentity device selects an invoice number 1305 as a filter, the invoiceanalytics system dynamically transforms the graphical datarepresentations and the feed report 1303 in real time and renders thetransformed graphical data representations and the feed report 1303 inthe interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1302as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 13C.

FIGS. 14A-14C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 1401 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport 1402 comprising different graphical data representations ofinvoice analytics performed on invoices of a vendor, for example, amedical gas delivery service provider over a predefined duration oftime, for example, a month. The medical gas delivery service providerprovides medical gas delivery services to an entity, for example, ahealth center, and invoices the health center according to specificmonthly usage of medical gases by the health center. The invoiceanalytics system provides a view selector 1403 as a drop down menu onthe GUI 1401 to allow the user of the entity device to view purchasepatterns, pricing errors, high spend items, off-contract businessservice items, etc., in the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report 1402 based on the selection in the view selector 1403.As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 14A, when the user selects “overallamount” via the view selector 1403 on the GUI 1401, the invoiceanalytics system renders graphical data representations, for example, aline graph, bar graphs, etc., displaying the percentage of overallspend, business service line item spend, trends in the spend, categoryamount breakdown, etc., for the medical gas delivery service out of theother business services procured by the health center, in theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1402. Theinvoice analytics system also renders a total count of invoices, countof material number, and number of pricing errors corresponding to themedical gas delivery service provider. The invoice analytics systemidentifies the off-contract business service items from the invoicesreceived from the medical gas delivery service provider and renders theamount of pricing errors, count of off-contract business service items,and amount of off-contract business service item spend in theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1402 onthe GUI 1401.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 14B, when the user selects “On/OffContract” via the view selector 1403 on the graphical user interface(GUI) 1401, the invoice analytics system renders graphical datarepresentations, for example, a line graph, bar graphs, etc., displayingthe percentage of overall spend, business service line item spend,trends in the spend, etc., that are on-contract and off-contract for themedical gas delivery service procured by the health center, in theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1402. Thebar graphs indicating the business service line item spend for theon-contract and off-contract allows the user to identify off-contractbusiness service items and the corresponding off-contract spend, to paymore attention in future invoices, and to make adjustments for thealready paid invoices.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 14C, when the user selects “Bulk VCylinder” view via the view selector 1403 on the graphical userinterface (GUI) 1401, the invoice analytics system renders graphicaldata representations, for example, a line graph, bar graphs, etc.,displaying the percentage of overall spend, business service line itemspend, trends in the spend, etc., for bulk medical gas delivery andindividual cylinder delivery by the medical gas delivery serviceprovider to the health center, in the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1402. The interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1402 allows the user to drill downthe graphical data representations to depict trends in business serviceline items. The trends in the spend allow the user to identify probableoutliers in the invoices received from the medical gas delivery serviceprovider on viewing a sudden change in the total spend over a predefinedduration of time, for example, two months.

FIG. 15 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface 1501 provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying atabular representation of off-contract business service items identifiedin invoices received from a vendor, for example, a medical gas deliveryservice provider as a part of a reconciliation report. The invoiceanalytics system identifies the off-contract business service items fromdifferent invoices received from the medical gas delivery serviceprovider and the corresponding off-contract business spends andgenerates the reconciliation report. If payments are made for theidentified off-contract business service items by an entity, forexample, a health center, the invoice analytics system creates thereconciliation report in such a way that adjustments in payments can bemade to the medical gas delivery service provider in future, incommunication with an accounts payable system of the health center.

FIGS. 16A-16C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a utilizationvalidation interface 1601 generated by the invoice analytics system forvalidating utilization of business services, for example, a bloodtesting service, by an entity, for example, a health center. A vendor,for example, a blood testing service provider invoices the health centerbased on blood tests performed. The utilization validation interface1601 comprises graphical data representations, for example, bar graphs,line graphs, etc., indicating business services spend by location, bymonth, by category, etc. The invoice analytics system renders thebusiness service line items and trends in the business service lineitems over a predefined duration of time, for example, monthly, on theutilization validation interface 1601. The utilization validationinterface 1601 displays total business services spend over a year,average business services spend by location, and average businessservices spend by month as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 16A. Closemonitoring and analysis of the utilization of the blood testing serviceby the invoice analytics system determine cost reduction opportunitiesfor the health center.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 16B, as part of the invoiceanalytics, the invoice analytics system computes cost savings over apredefined duration of time for the health center based on the analyticscriteria and renders the best in class computed cost savings over thepredefined duration of time on the utilization validation interface1601. The invoice analytics system also performs benchmarking of thebusiness service line items and determines and renders marketcompetitive savings on the utilization validation interface 1601. Theinvoice analytics system displays a comparison of the cost savings andthe market competitive savings over the predefined duration of time as agraphical data representation, for example, a bar graph, in theutilization validation interface 1601 to estimate pricing performance ofthe health center. FIG. 16C exemplarily illustrates the utilizationvalidation interface 1601 displaying a table 1602 of computed costsavings per business service line item in the invoices received by thehealth center from the blood testing service provider. The invoiceanalytics system also displays the table 1602 as a part of a costsavings opportunity report, where the table 1602 illustrates a breakoutof different business service line items that have contributed to thebest in class computed cost savings, the market competitive savings, andcorresponding spend. The cost savings opportunity report helps optimizethe spend of the health center for the different business service itemsoffered by the blood testing service provider.

FIGS. 17A-17D exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 1701 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying a summary of calculations performed and reports generated bythe invoice analytics system. As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17A,the invoice analytics system renders a computed total spend for thebusiness services procured by an entity, for example, a health center,over a predefined duration of time on the GUI 1701. The invoiceanalytics system also renders the number of invoice line items and costsavings computed based on analytics criteria on the GUI 1701. Theinvoice analytics system also renders links to access other reports, forexample, a monthly spend report, a quarterly business review, etc., onthe GUI 1701. The invoice analytics system provides different interfaceelements, for example, buttons 1703, 1704, and 1705 on the GUI 1702 asexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17B, for performing reconciliation,optimization, and real time intelligence respectively. When a user ofthe invoice analytics system clicks on a reconciliation button 1703 onthe GUI 1702, the invoice analytics system renders a reconciliationreport 1706 on the GUI 1702 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17B. Theinvoice analytics system performs a comprehensive retrospective contractcompliance analysis within minutes to identify billing pricing errors,contract compliance errors, and off-contract business service items.After the analysis, the invoice analytics system renders graphical datarepresentations of outliers of the contracts, overpriced businessservices, underpriced business services, etc. as a part of thereconciliation report 1706 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17B.

When a user of the invoice analytics system clicks on an optimizationbutton 1704 on the graphical user interface (GUI) 1702 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 17C, the invoice analytics system renders anoptimization report 1707 for a business service, for example, a dietaryservice. The invoice analytics system provides a trend analysis of thebusiness services that identifies issues with the business servicetransactions and spend increases, and renders the optimization report1707 on the GUI 1702 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17C. The invoiceanalytics system also identifies variations, new business service spendareas, and outliers that occur at predefined intervals, for example,monthly, and provides visibility into the business service spends of thehealth center that are hard to identify, for example, a dietary servicespend, service and maintenance of equipment spend, legal service spend,consulting services spend, etc. When a user of the invoice analyticssystem clicks on the optimization button 1704 on the GUI 1702exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17D, the invoice analytics systemrenders an optimization report 1707 for a business service, for example,a dialysis service. A dialysis service provider invoices the healthcenter based on dialysis services performed. The optimization report1707 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17D, provides a visual display oftrends in the dialysis services performed partially and completely bythe dialysis service provider over a number of invoices. Theoptimization report 1707 enables the user of the invoice analyticssystem to determine utilization optimization opportunities by assessingthe business services spend over the number of invoices. When a user ofthe invoice analytics system clicks on an intelligence button 1705 onthe GUI 1702, the invoice analytics system performs real timebenchmarking as disclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 1A-1B.The invoice analytics system compares health centers using anopportunity score that measures cost and utilization opportunities ofeach health center. The invoice analytics system also implementsutilization algorithms that are specific to each business service.

FIG. 18 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 1801 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying an invoice 1802 received from a vendor, for example, a linencleaning service provider, and a table 1804 comprising invoice line itemdata 1805 extracted from the invoice 1802 and segmented by the invoiceanalytics system. As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 18, the invoice1802 comprises business service transactional invoice data 1803 of eachof the business services performed by the linen cleaning serviceprovider. The invoice analytics system extracts and segments invoiceline item data 1805 from the business service transactional invoice data1803 of the invoice 1802 into the table 1804 using optical characterrecognition and an extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 2. The invoice analyticssystem computes total quantity of linen cleaned per week and total spendfor the linen cleaning service per week for, for example, Gown, Obese IV5XL AZTEC, as 70 and 80.2 dollars respectively, while the invoice 1802only lists the quantity of linen cleaned over a week along with thecharges levied by the linen cleaning service provider per linen.

The invoice analytics system extracts contract line item data fromcontracts established between an entity, for example, a health center,and the linen cleaning service provider. The invoice analytics systemcompares the extracted and segmented invoice line item data 1805 fromthe invoice line item database 203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2,with the extracted contract line item data in the contract line itemdatabase 205 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 2, and identifies, details,and outlines billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors, andoff-contract business service items for reconciling the invoice 1802 inaccordance with the contracts for every week. The invoice analyticssystem calculates the total linen per week and charges to be paid to thelinen cleaning service provider per week in accordance with thecontracts. The invoice analytics system performs invoice analytics onthe extracted and segmented invoice line item data 1805 as disclosed inthe detailed description of FIGS. 1A-1B. For different businessservices, the invoice analytics system performs reconciliation of theinvoices in accordance with the contracts and generates an interactive,dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1901 as exemplarilyillustrated in FIGS. 19A-19C.

FIGS. 19A-19C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 1901 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport 1902 generated by the invoice analytics system. As exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 19A, the generated interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1902 comprises multiple tabs fordifferent business services, for example, a linen cleaning service, afood service, an environmental service, a biomedical service, ajanitorial service, a waste management service, etc., of an entity, forexample, a health center. The interactive, dynamic, and searchableinvoice analytics report 1902 comprises graphical data representations1903 and 1904 of purchase patterns of the health center over apredefined duration of time, for example, a month or a quarter. Theinvoice analytics system computes total spend for each of the businessservices over a predefined duration of time, for example, a month, andrenders the computed total spend in the generated interactive, dynamic,and searchable invoice analytics report 1902. The invoice analyticssystem generates a feed report comprising the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data by category of the business services, by vendor,and by predefined duration of time, for example, a month. Theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 1902displays monthly invoices 1905 and monthly invoices by vendor 1906 asexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 19A. In an embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system also computes and renders the total spend of the healthcenter over a month by vendor as a part of the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1902. The invoice analytics systemprovides a priority alert button 1907 in the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1902 on the GUI 1901, which whenclicked by a user, alerts the user about unusual variations in highpriority spend of the health center and outliers in the total spend overa predefined duration of time.

On selection of a tab corresponding to linen cleaning servicesexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 19A, by an administrator of the invoiceanalytics system, the invoice analytics system renders monthly linenanalytics 1908 as a part of the interactive, dynamic, and searchableinvoice analytics report 1902 as exemplarily illustrated in FIGS.19B-19C. The invoice analytics system also displays the top spend itemsin the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report1902 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 19B. The interactive, dynamic,and searchable invoice analytics report 1902 further comprises a workbench 1909 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 19B, for editing thegraphical data representations rendered in the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1902. The interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 1902 further comprises an invoicediscrepancy dashboard 1910 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 19B, thatindicates the billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors, andoff-contract business service items identified by the invoice analyticssystem while reconciling the received invoices in accordance with thereceived contracts using the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata and the extracted contract line item data.

In the interactive, dynamic, and searchable analytics report 1902, as apart of the monthly linen analytics 1908, the invoice analytics systemrenders different graphical data representations comprising bar graphs,line graphs, etc., that compare performances of different vendors over apredefined duration of time, for example, a quarter, as exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 19C. The invoice analytics system performs themonthly linen analytics 1908 by service category, for example, monthlypounds with respect to what was delivered to the hospital?, top andbottom scrub rentals by piece, customer owned goods (COG) linen cleanedin pounds or by piece, surcharges, linen loss, distribution charge,linen loss ratio clean to dirty, linen replacement, scrub replacement,personnel or management onsite fees, etc. In an embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system also computes a quality metric score for rankingdifferent vendors based on the performance of the business service inthe same category.

FIGS. 20A-20B exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 2001 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying a contract of an entity, for example, a health center, for abusiness service, for example, a laboratory testing service, and a table2002 comprising contract line item data 2003 extracted from the contractby the invoice analytics system respectively. A laboratory testingservice provider invoices the health center based on laboratory testsperformed. According to the contract, the health center and thelaboratory testing service provider agreed upon billing for thelaboratory testing services according to Medicare rates. As the Medicarerates change annually or half yearly, a physical document of thecontract is created with the current Medicare rates. The invoiceanalytics system extracts contract line item data 2003 from the contractwith the current Medicare rates using optical character recognition andan extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation as disclosed in thedetailed description of FIG. 2. The invoice analytics system extractsthe contract line item data 2003 from the contract, for example, into acomma-separated values (csv) file that stores tabular data in plaintext. The invoice analytics system processes the csv file and transformseach record in the csv file into contract line item data 2003 in thetable 2002. The contract line item database 205 exemplarily illustratedin FIG. 2, comprises a table similar to the table 2002 for each of thevendors, for example, a line cleaning service provider, a wastemanagement service provider, an organ procurement service provider,etc., transacting with the health center.

FIG. 21 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface (GUI) 2101 provided by the invoice analytics system,displaying a tabular representation of invoice line item data 2102 bymonth extracted by the invoice analytics system from an invoice receivedfrom a vendor, for example, a laboratory testing service provider, by anentity, for example, a health center, for a business service, forexample, a laboratory testing service. The invoice analytics systemextracts and segments the invoice line item data 2102 from the receivedinvoice using optical character recognition and an extract, transform,and load (ETL) operation as disclosed in the detailed description ofFIG. 2, and creates an invoice line item database 203 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2, for storing the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data 2102. The invoice analytics system extracts and segmentsthe invoice line item data 2102 from the received invoice into acomma-separated values (csv) file that stores tabular data in plaintext. The invoice analytics system processes the csv file and transformseach record in the csv file into invoice line item data 2102 in a table.The invoice line item database 203 comprises a similar table for each ofthe vendors, for example, a line cleaning service provider, a wastemanagement service provider, an organ procurement service provider,etc., transacting with the health center. The invoice analytics systemreconciles the received invoices in accordance with the receivedcontracts by identifying and rectifying billing pricing errors andcontract compliance errors, and by identifying and resolvingoff-contract business service line items.

FIGS. 22A-22F exemplarily illustrate screenshots of a graphical userinterface provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 2201comprising different graphical data representations 2202, 2203, 2204,2205, 2206, 2207, 2208, 2209, and 2210 of the invoice analyticsperformed by the invoice analytics system for a business service, forexample, a laboratory testing service. The invoice analytics systemgenerates graphical data representations, for example, bar graphs 2202,2203, 2204, 2206, and 2210 exemplarily illustrated in FIGS. 22A-22B,FIG. 22D, and FIG. 22F, line graphs 2205 and 2207 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 22C and FIG. 22E, donut charts 2208 and 2209exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 22F, etc. The bar graph 2202 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 22A, provides a visual display of the spend ofbusiness service line items in an invoice that are covered under acontract, the spend of the business service line items that are notcovered under the contract, and the spend of the business service lineitems that are under the contract but with billing pricing errors. Thebar graph 2203 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 22B, displays thepercentage of business service line items that have billing pricingerrors. The invoice analytics system also identifies and renders topbusiness service line items, for example, top procedures performed bythe laboratory testing service provider that are mispriced in the bargraph 2204 as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 22B. The invoice analyticssystem also identifies and renders top procedures performed by thelaboratory testing service provider by spend and top tests by spend asbar graphs 2206 and 2210 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 22D and FIG.22F respectively. The line graph 2205 exemplarily illustrated in FIG.22C, depicts the total spend of the health center for the laboratorytesting services by month. As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 22C, thedata represented in the line graph 2205 can be filtered by a user of theinvoice analytics system. Furthermore, the invoice analytics systempresents a comparison of the total spend of the health center by monthand by account number as a line graph 2207 exemplarily illustrated inFIG. 22E, to allow the user to assess the trends in the total spend bymonth and account number. As exemplarily in FIG. 22F, the invoiceanalytics system renders business service line item spend as donutcharts 2208 and 2209.

FIG. 23 exemplarily illustrates a screenshot of a graphical userinterface 2301 provided by the invoice analytics system, displaying areconciliation report comprising a tabular representation of pricingerrors of business service line items identified in invoices receivedfrom a vendor, for example, a laboratory testing service provider, bythe invoice analytics system. The invoice analytics system identifiesthe pricing errors of the business service line items from differentinvoices of the laboratory testing service provider and thecorresponding fees from a pricing sheet, that is, the contract andgenerates the reconciliation report. The invoice analytics systemfurther generates a feed report comprising the invoice line item dataextracted and segmented from the aggregated business servicetransactional invoice data of the invoices by category of the businessservices, by vendor, and by a predefined time duration, for example, amonth. The feed report helps build a business service item master datatable. The business service item master data table is a centralrepository of expenditures of an entity, for example, a health center,with respect to business services procured by the entity. The businessservice item master data table contains, for example, descriptions ofall the business service line items listed in the business service itemmaster data table, vendor name, vendor catalog number, servicedescription number, etc.

FIG. 24 exemplarily illustrates a business service item master datatable 2401 for business services. The invoice analytics system extractsinvoice line item data from invoices for the business services receivedfrom an entity and then transforms the extracted line item data into aformat that can be uploaded into an operational system, for example, apurchasing system of the entity. The invoice analytics system reconcilesthe received invoices and in an embodiment, renders the extracted lineitem data to the entity's accounting and/or procurement systems foruploading into the business service item master data table 2401. Asexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 24, the business service item masterdata table 2401 comprises columns for delivery number description,service description number, unit price, and price unit of measure (UOM)as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 24. The delivery number descriptionin the business service item master data table 2401 is a systemgenerated number that provides a record identifier to an entry in thebusiness service item master data table 2401. Vendors may furtheroutsource the business services to a subordinate agency. Entities, forexample, health centers, have established protocols and standards forreviewing the vendors prior to adding the vendors to an operationalsystem of each entity. For example, prior to adding vendor details to anaccounts payable system of an entity, payment details associated withthe vendor, for example, bank details, account details, etc., need to beverified by the entity. The service description number in the businessservice item master data table 2401 is an identifier for a vendor andthe vendor's associated business service in a catalog. The servicedescription number is similar to a manufacturer part number in itemmaster data of a material management system of the entity. The otherfields in the business service item master data table 2401 for businessservices comprise, for example, commodity code, ordering unit ofmeasure, lowest unit of measure, quantity, chargeable flag, etc. Anyoperation performed on the entries in the business service item masterdata table 2401 affects the other operational systems of the entity.

FIGS. 25A-25C exemplarily illustrate screenshots of graphicalrepresentations 2501, 2502, and 2503 of invoice line item data utilizedby the invoice analytics system for performing a comparative analysis ofthe invoice line item data extracted and segmented from invoices ofvendors, for example, a medical equipment repair service provider in asimilar category of business services, for example, medical equipmentrepair services, for an entity, for example, a health center ordifferent entities. Entities have many vendors they utilize within thesame category and all with different pricing and terms. The invoiceanalytics system performs a line item comparative analysis of allvendors within the same category by month and line item data to indicatepricing gaps and opportunities to reduce costs and consolidate. Thegraphical representation 2501 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 25A,displays pricing details per repair by a medical equipment repairservice provider for different models of electric beds. The graphicalrepresentation 2502 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 25B, displaysdetails of the time taken on an average per repair per model and laborcharges per hour of repair for different models of electric beds. Thegraphical representation 2503 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 25C,displays pricing details for repair of the electric beds per hour fordifferent hospitals. The invoice analytics system compares the detailsin the graphical representations 2501, 2502, and 2503 to determineavenues for cost reduction and utilization optimization when procuringthe medical equipment repair services from the medical equipment repairservice provider.

FIGS. 26A-26B exemplarily illustrate an embodiment of a system 2600comprising the invoice analytics system 2603 for analyzing businessservice transactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoiceanalytics for the entity in real time. The invoice analytics system 2603communicates with an entity device 2605 in a cloud computingenvironment. The entity device 2605 is an electronic device that hasaccess to an operational system of the entity for conducting businessand to the invoice analytics system 2603 that analyzes business servicetransactional invoice data of the entity and performs invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time. The entity device 2605 is, for example, oneor more of a personal computer, a tablet computing device, a mobilecomputer, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a portable computing device, alaptop, a personal digital assistant, a wearable device such as theGoogle Glass® of Google Inc., the Apple Watch® of Apple Inc., theAndroid Smartwatch® of Google Inc., etc., a touch centric device, aworkstation, a server, a client device, a portable electronic device, anetwork enabled computing device, an interactive network enabledcommunication device, a web browser, any other suitable computingequipment, combinations of multiple pieces of computing equipment, etc.In an embodiment, the entity device 2605 is a hybrid computing devicethat combines the functionality of multiple devices. An examples of ahybrid computing device is a portable device that receives electronicmail (email), supports mobile telephone calls, has a media playerfunctionality, and supports web browsing. In an embodiment, computingequipment is used to implement applications such as media playbackapplications, a web browser, an electronic mail (email) application, acalendar application, etc.

An administrator of the invoice analytics system 2603 receives physicaldocuments, for example, paper based documents of contracts 2601 a andinvoices 2601 b from one or more data sources and scans the physicaldocuments using a scanner 2602 to convert the physical documents toelectronic documents in an electronic format. The electronic documentsare, for example, portable document format (pdf) files, Microsoft® Worddocument files of Microsoft Corporation, etc. The invoice analyticssystem 2603 receives the contracts 2601 a and the invoices 2601 b in theelectronic format and performs optical character recognition (OCR) 201and an extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation on the receivedcontracts 2601 a and invoices 2601 b as disclosed in the detaileddescription of FIG. 2, to extract contract line item data and to extractand segment invoice line item data respectively. The invoice analyticssystem 2603 stores the extracted contract line item data and theextracted and segmented invoice line item data in the contract line itemdatabase 205 and the invoice line item database 203 exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2, respectively. The contract line item database 205and the invoice line item database 203 can be any storage area or mediumthat can be used for storing extracted contract line item data and theextracted and segmented invoice line item data respectively. In anembodiment, the contract line item database 205 and the invoice lineitem database 203 can be remotely accessed by the entity device 2605 viaa network, for example, the internet.

In this embodiment of the system 2600 disclosed herein, the invoiceanalytics system 2603 is configured as a software as a service (SaaS)business intelligence and analytics platform. The invoice analyticssystem 2603 uses both a cloud and on premise reporting suite 2604 thatrenders real time invoice analytics of the contract line item data andthe invoice line item data on a graphical user interface of the entitydevice 2605. The invoice analytics system 2603 reconciles the receivedinvoices 2601 b in accordance with the received contracts 2601 a asdisclosed in the detailed description of FIGS. 1A-1B, performs invoiceanalytics on the extracted and segmented invoice line item data, andgenerates and renders an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report 2604 a as a part of the cloud and on premise reportingsuite 2604 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 26B, on the graphical userinterface (GUI) of the entity device 2605. The cloud and on premisereporting suite 2604 implements access control to allow users 2606 ofthe invoice analytics system 2603 to accessing data contained in theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report 2604 a. Toprovide access to the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report 2604 a, an administrator of the invoice analyticssystem 2603 configures personal details, for example, name 2606 a, level2606 b, access 2606 c, contact information 2606 d, etc., andauthentication information comprising login credentials 2606 e asexemplarily illustrated in FIG. 26A. The cloud and on premise reportingsuite 2604 allows mobile reporting of the interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report 2604 a and allows the users 2606 toaccess the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report2604 a on any web-enabled entity device 2605. The cloud and on premisereporting suite 2604 provides additional capabilities, for example, ananalysis of business services items not under contract, a businessservice line item analysis year over year, a fee and surcharge analysis,and a what if analysis to show potential cost reduction and utilizationoptimization opportunities.

FIG. 27 exemplarily illustrates an embodiment of the invoice analyticssystem 2603 implemented in a data lake architecture for analyzingbusiness service transactional invoice data of an entity and performinginvoice analytics for the entity in real time. As used herein, “datalake” refers to a data storage repository that consolidates and storesthe business service transactional invoice data involved in analyzingbusiness service transactions between the entity and one or more vendorsand performing the invoice analytics. The data lake architecturecomprises a raw store 2703 that is a storage repository that holds avast amount of raw data in a native format until the raw data isrequested by the invoice analytics system 2603. In this embodiment, theinvoice analytics system 2603 is configured as a software as a service(SaaS) business intelligence and analytics platform. In an embodiment,the invoice analytics system 2603 is developed, for example, using theGoogle App engine cloud infrastructure of Google Inc, Amazon WebServices® of Amazon Technologies, Inc., the Amazon elastic compute cloudEC2® web service of Amazon Technologies, Inc., the Google® Cloudplatform of Google Inc., the Microsoft® Cloud platform of MicrosoftCorporation, the Microsoft® Power BI® of Microsoft Corporation, etc.,and is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996(HIPAA) compliant.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 27, in this embodiment, the invoiceanalytics system 2603 receives invoices and contracts from one or moredata sources at an ingestion endpoint 2701. The invoice analytics system2603 creates a contract terms database comprising the received contractsand aggregates the business service transactional invoice data of thereceived invoices in an invoice aggregation database. The invoiceanalytics system 2603 extracts contract line item data from the receivedcontracts and extracts and segments invoice line item data from theaggregated business service transactional invoice data. The invoiceanalytics system 2603 stores the extracted contract line item data andthe extracted and segmented invoice line item data in the raw store 2703via a queue 2702. In an embodiment, the ingestion of the extractedcontract line item data and the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data into the raw store 2703 is performed using Health InsurancePortability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliant securityprotocols, for example, a secure file transfer protocol (sftp), ahypertext transfer protocol secure (https), etc.

The invoice analytics system 2603 implements platform governance 2705,in communication with a view database 2710, on the raw store 2703. Theinvoice analytics system 2603 categorizes and catalogues the storedinvoice line item data by vendor, by a predefined duration of time, forexample, a month, etc., by category of business services procured by theentity, etc. As a part of the platform governance 2705, the invoiceanalytics system 2603 monitors quality of the ingested data, that is,the extracted contract line item data and the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data, ensures comprehensive data categorization,monitors authorization of access of the raw store 2703, monitorsprotection of sensitive data, for example, financial information in theraw store 2703 using masking, performs quota management of the extractedcontract line item data and the extracted and segmented invoice lineitem data stored in the raw store 2703, etc.

The invoice analytics system 2603 catalogues the ingested data, that is,the extracted contract line item data and the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data, and creates a metadata store 2704 correspondingto the ingested data. The invoice analytics system 2603 performsreconciliation 2706, optimization 2707, and intelligence 2708 incommunication with the raw store 2703 and the metadata store 2704 togenerate an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport, for example, in the form of a user interface dashboard at aconsumption endpoint 2711 of the invoice analytics system 2603. At theconsumption endpoint 2711, the invoice analytics system 2603 alsogenerates a feed report with data feed comprising the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data by category of the business services,by vendor, by predefined duration of time, for example, a month, etc.The invoice analytics system 2603 also generates a benchmark reportcomprising the determined avenues for cost savings in the businessservice transactions between the entity and the vendors, at theconsumption endpoint 2711 of the invoice analytics system 2603. Forperforming reconciliation 2706, optimization 2707, and intelligence2708, the invoice analytics system 2603 generates a search database 2709comprising search terms used to search the raw store 2703 based on aquery. The view database 2710 stores views generated using differentqueries on the raw store 2703.

The software implementation of the invoice analytics system 2603 is animprovement in computer related and database technology. The data lakearchitecture of the invoice analytics system 2603 provides multiplemethods to query the data in the raw store 2703. The raw store 2703 canstore multi-structured data from diverse data sources. The invoiceanalytics system 2603 utilizes the availability of large quantities ofcoherent invoice line item data in the raw store 2703 along with deeplearning algorithms to recognize invoice line item data that will powerreal time decision analytics of the entity. The data lake architectureof the invoice analytics system 2603 integrates the ingested contractline item data and invoice line item data with historical data togenerate a complete insight on the total spend of the entity fordifferent business services for a predefined duration of time. In thedata lake architecture of the invoice analytics system 2603, the invoiceanalytics system 2603 can store the extracted contract line item dataand the extracted and segmented invoice line item data in a raw formatin the raw store 2703 for indefinite periods of time and fetch the datafrom the raw store 2703 while performing invoice analytics as the needarises. The data lake architecture of the invoice analytics system 2603allows faster loading of data from the raw store 2703 and parallelprocessing, resulting in a quick generation of the interactive, dynamic,and searchable invoice analytics report.

FIG. 28 exemplarily illustrates another embodiment of the system 2600comprising the invoice analytics system 2603 for analyzing businessservice transactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoiceanalytics for the entity in real time. The invoice analytics system 2603is a computer system that is programmable using a high level computerprogramming language. In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system2603 uses programmed and purposeful hardware. In an embodiment, theinvoice analytics system 2603 is implemented on a computing device, forexample, a personal computer, a tablet computing device, a mobilecomputer, a portable computing device, a laptop, a touch centric device,a workstation, a server, a client device, a portable electronic device,a network enabled computing device, an interactive network enabledcommunication device, any other suitable computing equipment,combinations of multiple pieces of computing equipment, etc. In thesystem 2600 disclosed herein, the invoice analytics system 2603interfaces with one or more data sources 2824 for receiving thecontracts and the invoices, an operational system 2823 of the entity forperforming invoice analytics and utilization validation, an entitydevice 2605, an external database 2826 for computing cost savings forthe entity, and a benchmarking database 2825 used for benchmarking thecontract line item data and the invoice line item data in real time, andtherefore uses more than one specifically programmed computing system.

The invoice analytics system 2603 communicates with the data sources2824, the benchmarking database 2825, the external database 2826, theoperational system 2823 of the entity, and the entity device 2605 via anetwork 2822, for example, a short range network or a long rangenetwork. The network 2822 is, for example, one of the internet, anintranet, a wired network, a wireless network, a communication networkthat implements Bluetooth® of Bluetooth Sig, Inc., a network thatimplements Wi-Fi® of Wi-Fi Alliance Corporation, an ultra-widebandcommunication network (UWB), a wireless universal serial bus (USB)communication network, a communication network that implements ZigBee®of ZigBee Alliance Corporation, a general packet radio service (GPRS)network, a mobile telecommunication network such as a global system formobile (GSM) communications network, a code division multiple access(CDMA) network, a third generation (3G) mobile communication network, afourth generation (4G) mobile communication network, a fifth generation(5G) mobile communication network, a long-term evolution (LTE) mobilecommunication network, a public telephone network, etc., a local areanetwork, a wide area network, an internet connection network, aninfrared communication network, etc., or a network formed from anycombination of these networks. In an embodiment, the invoice analyticssystem 2603 is accessible to users, for example, through a broadspectrum of technologies and devices such as personal computers,internet enabled cellular phones, tablet computing devices, etc., withaccess to the internet.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 28, the invoice analytics system 2603comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, forexample, a memory unit 2803 for storing programs and data, and at leastone processor 2801 communicatively coupled to the non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium. As used herein, “non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium” refers to all computer readable media,for example, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media,except for a transitory, propagating signal. Non-volatile mediacomprise, for example, solid state drives, optical discs or magneticdisks, and other persistent memory volatile media including a dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), which typically constitute a main memory.Volatile media comprise, for example, a register memory, a processorcache, a random access memory (RAM), etc. Transmission media comprise,for example, coaxial cables, copper wire, fiber optic cables, modems,etc., including wires that constitute a system bus coupled to theprocessor 2801. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium isconfigured to store computer program instructions defined by modules,for example, 2804, 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc.,of the invoice analytics system 2603. The modules, for example, 2804,2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of the invoiceanalytics system 2603 are installed and stored in the memory unit 2803of the invoice analytics system 2603. The memory unit 2803 is used forstoring program instructions, applications, and data. The memory unit2803 is, for example, a random access memory (RAM) or another type ofdynamic storage device that stores information and instructions forexecution by the processor 2801. The memory unit 2803 also storestemporary variables and other intermediate information used duringexecution of the instructions by the processor 2801. The invoiceanalytics system 2603 further comprises a read only memory (ROM) oranother type of static storage device that stores static information andinstructions for the processor 2801.

The processor 2801 is configured to execute the computer programinstructions defined by the modules, for example, 2804, 2805, 2806,2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of the invoice analyticssystem 2603. The processor 2801 refers to any of one or moremicroprocessors, central processing unit (CPU) devices, finite statemachines, computers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, logic,a logic device, a user circuit, an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a chip, etc., orany combination thereof, capable of executing computer programs or aseries of commands, instructions, or state transitions. In anembodiment, the processor 2801 is implemented as a processor setcomprising, for example, a programmed microprocessor and a math orgraphics co-processor. The processor 2801 is selected, for example, fromthe Intel® processors such as the Itanium® microprocessor or thePentium® processors, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD®) processors such asthe Athlon® processor, UltraSPARC® processors, microSPARC® processors,Hp® processors, International Business Machines)(IBM® processors such asthe PowerPC® microprocessor, the MIPS® reduced instruction set computer(RISC) processor of MIPS Technologies, Inc., RISC based computerprocessors of ARM Holdings, Motorola® processors, Qualcomm® processors,etc. The invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein is not limitedto employing a processor 2801. In an embodiment, the invoice analyticssystem 2603 employs a controller or a microcontroller. The processor2801 executes the modules, for example, 2804, 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808,2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of the invoice analytics system 2603.

As exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 28, the invoice analytics system 2603further comprises a display unit 2802, a data bus 2815, a networkinterface 2816, an input/output (I/O) controller 2817, input devices2818, a fixed media drive 2819 such as a hard drive, a removable mediadrive 2820 for receiving removable media, output devices 2821, etc. Thedisplay unit 2802, via the graphical user interface (GUI) 2802 a,displays information, display interfaces, user interface elements suchas swipable arrows, icons, buttons, etc., for example, for selectingfilters to be applied on graphical data representations of purchasepatterns, outliers, variations, and predictive analytics for the entityin the interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report.The display unit 2802 comprises, for example, a video display, a liquidcrystal display, a plasma display, an organic light emitting diode(OLED) based display, etc. The display unit 2802 displays the GUI 2802a. The GUI 2802 a is, for example, one of a webpage of a website hostedby the invoice analytics system 2603, an online web interface, a webbased downloadable application interface, a mobile based downloadableapplication interface, etc. The GUI 2802 a allows a user, for example,an administrator of the invoice analytics system 2603 to configure theinvoice analytics system 2603 to perform optical character recognition,to configure the rendering of the interactive, dynamic, and searchableinvoice analytics report on a GUI 2605 a of the entity device 2605, etc.

The data bus 2815 permits communications between the modules, forexample, 2801, 2802, 2803, 2816, 2817, 2818, 2819, 2820, 2821, etc., ofthe invoice analytics system 2603. The network interface 2816 enablesconnection of the invoice analytics system 2603 to the network 2822. Inan embodiment, the network interface 2816 is provided as an interfacecard also referred to as a “line card”. The network interface 2816comprises, for example, one or more of an infrared (IR) interface, aninterface implementing Wi-Fi® of Wi-Fi Alliance Corporation, a universalserial bus (USB) interface, a FireWire® interface of Apple Inc., anEthernet interface, a frame relay interface, a cable interface, adigital subscriber line (DSL) interface, a token ring interface, aperipheral controller interconnect (PCI) interface, a local area network(LAN) interface, a wide area network (WAN) interface, interfaces usingserial protocols, interfaces using parallel protocols, Ethernetcommunication interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, ahigh speed serial interface (HSSI), a fiber distributed data interface(FDDI), interfaces based on transmission control protocol (TCP)/internetprotocol (IP), interfaces based on wireless communications technologysuch as satellite technology, radio frequency (RF) technology, nearfield communication, etc. The I/O controller 2817 controls input actionsand output actions performed by the invoice analytics system 2603.

The input devices 2818 are used to input data into the invoice analyticssystem 2603 and for routine maintenance of the invoice analytics system2603. The user uses the input devices 2818 to provide inputs to theinvoice analytics system 2603. The input devices 2818 are, for example,a keyboard such as an alphanumeric keyboard, a microphone, a joystick, apointing device such as a computer mouse, a touch pad, a light pen, aphysical button, a touch sensitive display device, a track ball, apointing stick, any device capable of sensing a tactile input, etc. Theoutput devices 2821 output the results of operations performed by theinvoice analytics system 2603.

The modules of the invoice analytics system 2603 comprise a datacommunication module 2804, a database creation module 2805, a dataextraction module 2806, a quick view interface generation module 2807, areconciliation module 2808, an invoice analytics engine 2810, and areport generation module 2811. The data communication module 2804receives multiple contracts comprising agreement information on businessservice transactions between the entity and one or more vendors from oneor more data sources 2824. The data communication module 2804 alsoreceives multiple invoices comprising the business service transactionalinvoice data corresponding to the business service transactions betweenthe entity and one or more vendors from one or more data sources 2824. Acode snippet of the data communication module 2804 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for receivingmultiple contracts and invoices is disclosed below:

Public Overrides Function OnExportBatch(ByVal ResultDescription AsString) As EExportScriptResult Const csFunction As String =“OnExportBatch” Dim batchId As String = App.CurrentJob.SuperDoc.IdUtil.LogDebug(App, csFunction, “JobId=” & App.CurrentJob.Id & “BatchId=” & batchId) Dim batchName As String =App.CurrentJob.SuperDoc.UserProperty (“BatchId”)Component.SignalList.SetState(batchId, EExportSignalState.eExpExporting)Component.SignalList.SetValue(batchId, ESignalAttribute.eExpBatchName,batchId) Util.LogDebug(App, csFunction, “start exporting” & batchId)Util.logDebug( App, csFunction, “create FormatterAddIn”) Using formatterAs FormatterAddIn = New FormatterAddIn(App, App.Config.ClientId)Util.LogDebug(App, csFunction, “FormatterAddIn created”) Dim batch,unit, document As DCore.SuperDoc Batch = App.CurrentJob.SuperDoc ForEach unit In batch.Children For Each document In unit. Children Ifdocument.State <> DCore.EDocState.crStateDeleted Then If Not Directory.Exists(_exportRoot) Then Directory.CreateDirectory(_exportRoot) End If‘create foIder Inova if it does not exists Dim _GEPATH As String =Path.Combine(_exportRoot, “GE”) If Not Directory.Exists(_GEPATH) ThenDirectory.CReateDirectory(_GEPATH) End If Ifdocument.ClassData.ToDocument.Result IS Nothing Then Continue For End IfDim result As DRID.RID = document.ClassData. ToDocument.Result ‘Try ‘result = Component.ProcessDocumentResult(document) ‘Catch ex AsException ‘ Continue For ‘ End Try If result is Nothing Then ContinueFor End If Dim VendorName As String =result.regions(“CreditorId”).ToFieId.Value.Text

The database creation module 2805 creates a contract terms database 2814for storing the received contracts by vendor. The data extraction module2806 extracts contract line item data from the received contracts storedin the contract terms database 2814. The database creation module 2805creates a contract line item database 205 for storing the extractedcontract line item data. The database creation module 2805 alsoaggregates the business service transactional invoice data of thereceived invoices by vendor and by a predefined time duration, forexample, a month in an invoice aggregation database 2813. The dataextraction module 2806 also extracts and segments invoice line item datafrom the aggregated business service transactional invoice data storedin the invoice aggregation database 2813. The database creation module2805 also creates an invoice line item database 203 for storing theextracted and segmented invoice line item data. Code snippets of thedata communication module 2804, the database creation module 2805, andthe data extraction module 2806 executed by the processor 2801 of theinvoice analytics system 2603 for a vendor, for example, a documentmanagement service provider such as DocumentABC, Inc., are disclosedbelow:

Another code snippet of the data extraction module 2806 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for a vendor, forexample, a scope repair service provider is disclosed below:

Result.Regions(“HeaderTotalForAllScopes”).ToField.Value.Text =Result.Regions(“HeaderTotalForAllScopes”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“′”,“”) ′Result.Regions(“HeaderGENumber”).ToField.Value.Text =Result.Regions(“HeaderGENumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“—”,“”).Replace(“ ”, “”) ′End If IfResult.Regions(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.FieldMapping.CreditorId).ToField.Value.Text= “Scope” Then ExtractSerialTable(SuperDoc, Result)ExtractPositionsTable(SuperDoc, Result) End If ′IfResult.Regions(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.FieldMapping.CreditorId).ToField.Value.Text= “GECover” Then ′ExtractCover(SuperDoc, Result) ′ End If ″#Anthonycomplete TaxRate Address ′If NotString.IsNullOrEmpty(Result.Regions(“TaxRate”).ToField.Value.Text) Then′ Result.Regions(“TaxRate”).ToField.Value.Text =Result.Regions(“TaxRate”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“Sales”,“”).Replace(“USD”, “”).Trim ′End If Return True End Function ′ PublicSub ExtractCover(ByVal SuperDoc As Docutec.AddIn.DCore.SuperDoc, ByValResult As Docutec.AddIn.DRID.RID) ′ End Sub Public SubExtractSerialTable(ByVal SuperDoc As Docutec.AddIn.DCore.SuperDoc, ByValResult As Docutec.AddIn.DRID.RID) ′ if GEMaterial, extract second tableDim tf As DContext.TableFinder =ObjectFactory.CreateTableFinder(“SerialTable”, SuperDoc, Result)tf.SearchConfiguration = “Serial” tf.DoSearch(tf.SearchConfiguration)tf.RemoveInvalidLinesFromTable( ) tf.AddRowsToTarget( ) Dim lineCount AsInteger = 0 For Each row As DRID.Row InResult.Regions(“SerialTable”).ToTable.Rows Dim rect As DRID.Rect =row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy′row.Regions(“MaterialsCharges”).ToField.Value.Text =DecimalFix(row.Regions(“ClientChargeAmount”).ToField.Value.Text) If Notrect.IsEmpty Then rect =row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy rect.Left = 467rect.Right = 687row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc, row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.SheetIndex,rect, 0.5, DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value) rect =row.Regions(“SerialInvoiceDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy rect.Left =1267 rect.Right= 1487row.Regions(“SerialInvoiceDate”).ToField.Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc, row.Regions(“SerialInvoiceDate”).ToField.SheetIndex,rect, 0.5, DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value) ′ extract billing reassonrect = row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copyrect.Right = 3000 rect.Top = rect.Bottom + 5 rect.Bottom = rect.Top + 50row.Regions(“SerialComplaint”).ToField. Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.Peek Area(SuperDoc,row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.SheetIndex, rect, 0.5,DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value) rect =row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy rect.Left = 0rect.Right = 350 rect.Bottom = rect.Top − 5 rect.Top = rect.Bottom − 50row.Regions(“SerialNumber”).ToField.Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc, row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.SheetIndex, rect,0.5, DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value) rect =row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy rect.Left = 355rect.Right = 1000 rect.Bottom = rect.Top − 5 rect.Top = rect.Bottom − 50row.Regions(“SerialModel”).ToField.Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc, row.Regions(“SerialPickupDate”).ToField.SheetIndex, rect,0.5, DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value)′row.Regions(“MaterialsCoverage”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“MaterialsCoverage”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“.”,“”).Replace(“\”, “”).Replace(“—”, “”).Trim “MaterialsSpellCheck(row)′#Anthony fixes common mispellings in poorly scanned invoices. End IfNext End Sub Public Sub ExtractPositionsTable(ByVal SuperDoc AsDocutec.AddIn.DCore.SuperDoc, ByVal Result As Docutec.AddIn.DRID.RID)Dim tf As DContext.TableFinder =ObjectFactory.CreateTableFinder(“TableOfPositionData”, SuperDoc, Result)tf.SearchConfiguration = “Positions” tf.DoSearch(tf.SearchConfiguration)tf.RemoveInvalidLinesFromTable( ) tf.AddRowsToTarget( ) ′Dim tableEnd AsInteger = 0 ′ For i As Integer =Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows.Count − 1 To 0 Step−1 ′Dim row As DRID.Row =Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows(i) ′Ifrow.Regions(“FieldID”).ToField.Value.Text = “---LST” Then ′tableEnd = i′ Exit For ′End If ′While Not tableEnd <Result.Regions(“FieldIDTable”).ToTable.Rows.Count ′Try ′Catch ex AsException ′ Result.Regions(“FieldIDTable”).ToTable.Rows.Remove(tableEnd)′ End Try ′tableEnd = tableEnd + 1 ′End While ′ Next “”“”“”“” ′#AnthonyCleans Up Bad Lines based on the information of each field For i AsInteger = Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows.Count − 1To 0 Step −1 Dim row As DRID.Row =Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows(i) Dim rect AsDRID.Rect = row.Regions(“PosAppr”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy If Notrect.IsEmpty Then rect = row.Regions(“PosAppr”).ToField.BoundingBox.CopyDim height As Integer = rect.Bottom − rect.Top ′rect.Right = rect.Right+10 rect.Top = rect.Bottom + 2 rect.Bottom = rect.Top + height +10 Dimhelp As DRID.Field = XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc,row.Regions(“PosAppr”).ToField.SheetIndex, rect, 0.5,DCID.ERegionType.ciLine) rect =row.Regions(“PosAppr”).ToField.BoundingBox.Copy IfString.IsNullOrEmpty(help.Value.Text) Then ′has second row ′rect.Bottom= rect.Bottom + height ′#Anthony Original rect.Bottom = rect.Bottom +height +10 ′#Anthony Alteration Else rect.Bottom = rect.Bottom ′ nosecond row End If rect.Left = 555 rect.Right = 1430row.Regions(“PosRepairItemDescription”).ToField.Value.AssignEx(XGlobals.SPAP.Context.PeekArea(SuperDoc, row.Regions(“PosAppr”).ToField.SheetIndex,rect, 0.5, DCID.ERegionType.ciLine).Value)row.Regions(“PosRepairItemDescription”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosRepairItemDescription”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“@”,“at”) row.Regions(“PosRepairItemDescription”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosRepairItemDescription”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“lern”,“ 1 cm”) ′row.Regions(“PosRate”).ToField.Value.Text =DecimalFix(row.Regions(“PosRate”).ToField.Value.Text)′row.Regions(“PosTotal”).ToField.Value.Text =DecimalFix(row.Regions(“PosTotal”).ToField.Value.Text) End If′POSLineCheck(row, i, SuperDoc, Result) ′POSSpellCheck(row) Next ′ For iAs Integer = Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows.Count −1 To 0 Step −1 ′Dim row As DRID.Row =Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows(i) ′Ifrow.Regions(“FieldID”).ToField.BoundingBox.Left > 700 Then′Result.Regions(“TableOfPositionData”).ToTable.Rows.Remove(i) ′End If′Next End Sub

A code snippet of the data extraction module 2806 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for performing aspell check on the invoice line item data extracted from the receivedinvoice is disclosed below:

Public Sub POSSpellCheck(ByVal row As DRID.Row) TryRow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”). ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“Paris”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“Parte;”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“Pans;”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“P,,rrs;”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“Parls;”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“ParLs;”,“Parts”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“FiatRate;”,“Flat Rate”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“FlalRale;”,“Flat Rate”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“FiatRdlc;”,“Flat Rate”) Catch ex As Exception End Try Tryrow.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text =row.Regions(“PosArticleNumber”).ToField.Value.Text.Replace(“FlalRate;”,“Flat Rate”) Catch ex As Exception End Try

The quick view interface generation module 2807 transforms the extractedcontract line item data into a quick view format and generates andrenders a contract quick view interface on the graphical user interface2605 a of the entity device 2605. The contract quick view interfacedisplays the extracted contract line item data of the received contractsin the quick view format for optimal review, interpretation, comparison,and statistical analysis. The reconciliation module 2808 identifies,details, and outlines billing pricing errors, contract complianceerrors, and off-contract business service items from the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data with reference to the extractedcontract line item data for predefined time intervals, for example,monthly, automatically in real time using the created invoice line itemdatabase 203 and the created contract line item database 205. Thereconciliation module 2808 also rectifies the identified, detailed, andoutlined billing pricing errors and the contract compliance errors, andresolves the off-contract business service items in real time toreconcile the received invoices in accordance with the receivedcontracts for the predefined time intervals. A code snippet of thereconciliation module 2808 executed by the processor 2801 of the invoiceanalytics system 2603 for identifying, detailing, and outlining thebilling pricing errors, the contract compliance errors, and theoff-contract business service items, for rectifying the billing pricingerrors and the contract compliance errors, and for resolving theoff-contract business service items in real time to reconcile thereceived invoices in accordance with the received contracts for thepredefined time intervals is disclosed below:

r.entries = [ ]; for(var i = 0; i < facilityItems.length; i++) { let hit= contractItemsNonFacility[facilityItems[i].Description]; let c = {date: facilityItems[i].InvoiceDate, location: facilityItems[i].Location,description: facilityItems[i].Description, invoice_price:facilityItems[i].Price, contract_price: (hit) ? hit.Price : 0.0,quantity: facilityItems[i].Quantity, }; c.impact =parseFloat((c.invoice_price * c.quantity).toFixed(2)); c.totalspend =parseFloat((c.invoice_price * c.quantity).toFixed(2)); c.pct = ‘’; if(hit) { if (c.invoice_price == c.contract_price) c.status =‘onContractOnPrice’; else c.status = ‘onContractOffPrice’; } else {c.status = ‘offContract’; } r.entries.push(c); }

Another code snippet of the reconciliation module 2808 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for identifying,detailing, and outlining the billing pricing errors, the contractcompliance errors, and the off-contract business service items, forrectifying the billing pricing errors and the contract complianceerrors, and for resolving the off-contract business service items inreal time to reconcile the received invoices in accordance with thereceived contracts for the predefined time intervals is disclosed below:

class FacilityPhaseController { /**@ngInject*/ constructor($state,$scope,$stateParams,dataService) { this._$state =$state; category: $stateParams.category, facility: $stateParams.facility}; this.phases=dataService.facilityPhase($stateParams.facility,$stateParams.phase);$scope.phase=dataService.phase($stateParams.phase).name; letphaseCounts={ }; let countTypes={ { name:“Off Contract” }, { name:“OnContract- On Price” }, { name:“On Contract- Off Price” } }; letonContractOnPrice=[ ]; let onContractOnPrice=[ ]; let offContract=[ ];for (let i=0, i<this.phases.length;i++) { let phase=this.phases[i]; for(let j=0, j<phase.entries.length;j++) { let entry=phase.entries[j]; if(entry.status==‘offContract’) offContract.push(entry); else if(entry.status==‘conContractOfffPrice’) onContractOffPrice.push(entry);else onContractOnPrice.push(entry); } }

The contract terms database 2814, the invoice aggregation database 2813,the contract line item database 205, and the invoice line item database203 can be any storage area or medium that can be used for storing dataand files. In an embodiment, the contract terms database 2814, theinvoice aggregation database 2813, the contract line item database 205,and the invoice line item database 203 can be any of a structured querylanguage (SQL) data store or a not only SQL (NoSQL) data store such asthe Microsoft® SQL Server®, Microsoft® Power BI®, the Oracle® servers,the MySQL® database of MySQL AB Company, the mongoDB® of MongoDB, Inc.,the Neo4j graph database of Neo Technology Corporation, the Cassandradatabase of the Apache Software Foundation, the HBase® database of theApache Software Foundation, etc. In an embodiment, the contract termsdatabase 2814, the invoice aggregation database 2813, the contract lineitem database 205, and the invoice line item database 203 can also belocations on a file system. In another embodiment, the contract termsdatabase 2814, the invoice aggregation database 2813, the contract lineitem database 205, and the invoice line item database 203 can beremotely accessed by the invoice analytics system 2603 via the network2822. In another embodiment, the contract terms database 2814, theinvoice aggregation database 2813, the contract line item database 205,and the invoice line item database 203 are configured as cloud baseddatabases implemented in a cloud computing environment, where computingresources are delivered as a service over the network 2822.

In an embodiment, the modules of the invoice analytics system 2603further comprise a utilization validation module 2809 for generating autilization validation interface that links to the operational system2823 of the entity for validating utilization of the business serviceson the reconciliation of the received invoices. The utilizationvalidation module 2809 renders the generated utilization validationinterface on the graphical user interface 2605 a of the entity device2605. On reconciliation of the received invoices, the invoice analyticsengine 2810, in communication with the operational system 2823 of theentity, performs the invoice analytics on the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data with supplementary data for price and utilizationoptimization of the business services and benchmarking in real time forcost savings. In an embodiment, the supplementary data for price andutilization optimization of the business services is stored in theexternal database 2826. The invoice analytics engine 2810 comprises acost savings computation module 2810 a, a benchmarking module 2810 b,and a comparative analysis module 2810 c. The cost savings computationmodule 2810 a, in communication with the external database 2826,computes the cost savings for the entity based on analytics criteriacomprising, for example, the identified billing pricing errors, thecontract compliance errors, and the off-contract business service items.The benchmarking module 2810 b benchmarks the contract line item dataand the invoice line item data using the benchmarking database 2825 inreal time for determining avenues for cost savings in the businessservice transactions. The benchmarking database 2825 stores, forexample, pricing benchmarks. The comparative analysis module 2810 cperforms a comparative analysis of the extracted and segmented invoiceline item data from the received invoices of each of at least twovendors in a similar category of the business services at the predefinedtime intervals, for example, monthly, for determining pricing gapsbetween the vendors and cost reduction and utilization optimizationopportunities per extracted and segmented invoice line item data.

The report generation module 2811 of the invoice analytics system 2603generates an interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport comprising graphical data representations of purchase patterns,outliers, variations, and predictive analytics for the entity over thepredefined time duration at the predefined time intervals based on theinvoice analytics of the extracted and segmented invoice line item data.In an embodiment, the report generation module 2811 generates a feedreport comprising the extracted and segmented invoice line item data bycategory of the business services, by vendor, and by a predefined timeduration. In an embodiment, the modules of the invoice analytics system2603 further comprise a spend computation module 2812 for computing atotal spend for each of the business services over the predefined timeduration using the extracted and segmented invoice line item data. Thespend computation module 2812 renders the computed total spend in thegenerated interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report.Code snippets for the utilization validation module 2809, the invoiceanalytics engine 2810, and the spend computation module 2812 executed bythe processor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 are disclosedbelow:

const conf = require(‘./gulp.conf’); module.exports = function ( ) {return { server: { baseDir: [ conf.paths.dist ]  }, open: false }; constconf=require(‘./gulp.conf’); module.exports=function(config) {  constconfiguration= { basePath: ‘../’, singleRun: false, autoWatch: true,logLevel: ‘INFO’, junitReporter: { outputDir: ‘test-reports' },browsers: [ ‘PhantomJS’ ], frameworks: [  ‘jasmine’ ], files: [‘node_modules/es6-shim/es6-shim.js’, conf.path.src(‘index.spec.js’),conf.path.src(‘**/*.html’) ], preprocessors: {[conf.path.src(‘index.spec.js')]: [ ‘webpack’ ],[conf.path.src(‘**/*.html’)]: [ ‘ng-html2js' ] }, ngHtml2JsPreprocessor:{ stripePrefix: ‘${conf.paths.src}/’ }, reporters: [‘progress',‘coverage’], coverageReporter: { type: ‘html’, dir: ‘coverage/’ },webpack: require(′./webpack-test.conf′), webpackMiddleware: { noInfo:true }, plugins: [ require(′karma-jasmine′),require(′karma-junit-reporter′), require(‘karma-coverage′),require(‘karma-phantomjs-launcher’), require(‘karma-phantomjs-shim’),require(‘karma-ng-html2js-preprocessor’), require(‘karma-webpack’) ] };config.set(configuration);  }; const webpack=require(′webpack′); constconf=require(′./gulp.conf′); const path=require(′path′); constHtmlWebpackPlugin=require(′html-webpack-plugin′); constFailPlugin=require(′webpack-fail-plugin′); constExtractTextPlugin=require(′extract-text-webpack-plugin′); constpkg=require(′../package.json′); constautoprefixer=require(′autoprefixer′); module.exports= {  module: { loaders:[  { test: /.json$/,  loaders:[ const path=require (′path′);const gulp=require(′gulp′); const del=require(′del′); constfilter=require(′gulp-filter′); const conf=require(′../conf/gulp.conf′);gulp.task(′clean′,clean); gulp.task(′other′,other); function clean( ) {return del([conf.paths.dist, conf.paths.tmp]); } function other( ) {const fileFilter=filter(file=>file.stat.isFile( )); return gulp.src([path.join(conf,paths.src, ′/**/*′),path.join(′!$(conf.paths.src}′,′/**/*.{scss,js,html}′) ])

A code snippet of the report generation module 2811 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for generating theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report comprisinggraphical data representations of purchase patterns, outliers,variations, and predictive analytics for the entity over the predefinedtime duration at the predefined time intervals based on the invoiceanalytics of the extracted and segmented invoice line item data isdisclosed below:

[{“category”:“linen”,  “phase”:“reconciliation”,  “lineItem”:“BabyBlanket”,  “facility”:{ “id”:0, “name”:“Ochsner Satellite”,“address”:“”, “city”:“”, “state”:“”}, “entries”:[{“date”:“5/7/17”,“location”:“BabyBlanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“3”,“impact”:1.35,“totalspend”:1.35,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“6/7/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“3”,“impact”:1.35,“totalspend”:1.35,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“7/5/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“3”,“impact”:1.35,“totalspend”:1.35,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“8/7/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“3”,“impact”:1.35,“totalspend”:1.35,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“9/11/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“3”,“impact”:1.35,“totalspend”:1.35,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“10/8/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45“,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“6”,“impact”:2.7,“totalspend”:2.7,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”},{“date”:“11/8/17”,“location”:“Baby Blanket”,“description”:“BabyBlanket”,“invoice_price”:“0.45”,“contract_price”:0,“quantity”:“6”,“impact”:2.7,“totalspend”:2.7,“pct”:“”,“status”:“offContract”}  ] }]

A code snippet the data communication module 2804, the database creationmodule 2805, and the data extraction module 2806 executed by theprocessor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 for receiving acontract and an invoice, extracting contract line item data and invoiceline item data from the received contract and the received invoicerespectively, and creating the contract line item database 205 and theinvoice line item database 203 is disclosed below:

var fs = require(‘fs’); const csv=require(‘csvtojson’) const _ =require(‘underscore’); var moment = require(‘moment’); var json2csv =require(‘json2csv’); let map = [ ]; let mapHash = { }; let invoiceItems= [ ]; let contractItems = [ ]; let contractFacilities = [ ]; functionread_map(file, cb) { csv( ) .fromFile(file) .on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{map.push(jsonObj); mapHash[jsonObj.Facility] = jsonObj; }).on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); } function read_contract(file,category, cb) { csv( ) .fromFile(‘./data/Ochsner/companyS/’+file+‘.csv’).on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ if (jsonObj.Description != null &&jsonObj.Description != ‘’) { var tObj = { }; tObj.Price =clean(jsonObj[‘Contract Pricing’]); tObj.Units =jsonObj.Units.replace(/,/g, ‘’); tObj.Description =jsonObj.Description.replace(/,/g, ‘’); tObj.Category = category;contractItems.push(tObj); } }) .on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); }function read_contract_costs(file, category, cb) { csv( ).fromFile(‘./data/Inova/’+file+‘.csv’) .on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ if(jsonObj.Location != null && jsonObj.Location != ‘’) { var tObj = { };tObj.Price = clean(jsonObj.Price); tObj.Category = category;tObj.FacilityId = jsonObj.FacilityId; tObj.IsAcute = jsonObj.IsAcute;tObj.BillTo = jsonObj.BillTo; contractFacilities.push(tObj); } }).on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); } function read_contract_fees(file,category, cb) { csv( ) .fromFile(‘./data/Inova/’+file+‘.csv’).on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ if (jsonObj.Description != null &&jsonObj.Description != ‘’) { var tObj = { }; tObj.Description =jsonObj.Description; tObj.Price = clean(jsonObj.Price); tObj.Units =jsonObj.Units; tObj.Category = jsonObj.Category; tObj.Type = category;contractItems.push(tObj); } }) .on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); }function clean(v) { return parseFloat(v.replace(/,/g, ‘’).replace(‘$’,‘’)); } function lookup_facilityid(location) { let facility =mapHash[location]; if(facility != null) return facility.FacilityId;return null; } function read_invoice(asof, cb) { csv( ).fromFile(‘./data/ochsner/linen/invoice-’+asof+‘.csv’).on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ if (jsonObj.Location != null && jsonObj.Location!= “” && jsonObj.Description != null && jsonObj.Description != “”) {tObj = { }; tObj.InvoiceDate = jsonObj.InvoiceDate;//moment(jsonObj.InvoiceDate, “MM/DD/YYYY”).format]“YYYY-MM-DD”);tObj.Quantity = parseFloat(jsonObj.Quantity); tObj.Price =clean(jsonObj.Amount); tObj.Amount = clean(jsonObj.Amount);tObj.Description = jsonObj.Description.replace(/,/g, ‘’); tObj.Location= jsonObj.Location.replace(/,/g, ‘’); tObj.FacilityId =lookup_facilityid(jsonObj.Location); tObj.Source = ‘linens’;invoiceItems.push(tObj); } }) .on(‘done’,(error)=> { cb( ); }); }function persist(data, filename) { fs.writeFile(filename, data, function(err) { if (err) console.log(err); }); }read_map(‘./data/ochsner/companyS/map.csv’, function( ) {read_invoice(‘all’, function( ) { persist(json2csv({ data: invoiceItems,quotes: “”, hasCSVColumnTitle: false }),‘db/ochsner/linens/invoices.csv’) persist(json2csv({ data: invoiceItems,quotes: “” }), ‘db/ochsner/linens/invoices2.csv’) });/*read_contract_costs(‘costperpound’, “, function( ) {read_contract_fees(‘feeschedule’,”, function( ) { persist(json2csv({data: contractItems, quotes: “”, hasCSVColumnTitle: false }),‘db/ochsner/dietary/contracts-item.csv’) persist(json2csv({ data:contractItems, quotes: “” }), ‘db/ochsner/dietary/contracts- item2.csv’)}); });*/ });

Another code snippet for the data communication module 2804, thedatabase creation module 2805, the data extraction module 2806, thereconciliation module 2808, the invoice analytics engine 2810, thereport generation module 2811, the spend computation module 2812executed by the processor 2801 of the invoice analytics system 2603 fora vendor is disclosed below:

var fs = require(‘fs’); const csv=require(‘csvtojson’) const _ =require(‘underscore’); var moment = require(‘moment’); var json2csv =require(‘json2csv’); let lineItems = [ ]; let contractItems = [ ]; letcontractItemsNonFacility = { }; let addresses = { }; functionread_addresses(cb) { csv( ) .fromFile(‘./db/addresses2.csv’).on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ addresses[jsonObj.facilityid] = jsonObj; }).on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); } function read_contract(cb) { csv( ).fromFile(‘./db/contracts-facility2.csv’) .on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{contractItems.push(jsonObj); }) .on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); }function read_contract_non_facility(cb) { csv( ).fromFile(‘./db/contracts-item2.csv’) .on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{contractItemsNonFacility[jsonObj.Description] = jsonObj; }).on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); } function parse(file, cb) { csv( ).fromFile(file) .on(‘json’,(jsonObj)=>{ lineItems.push(jsonObj); }).on(‘done’,(error)=>{ cb( ); }); } function persist(data, filename) {fs.writeFile(filename, JSON.stringify(data), function (err) { if (err)console.log(err); }); } function bunch(name, onef, fid, facilityItems) {let r = { }; r.category = ‘linen’; r.phase = ‘reconciliation’;r.lineItem = name; let address = addresses[fid]; r.facility = { id: fid,name: address.name, address: address.address, city: address.city, state:address.state, zip: address.zip }; r.entries = [ ]; for(var i = 0; i <facilityItems.length; i++) { let hit =contractItemsNonFacility[facilityItems[i].Description]; let c = { date:facilityItems[i].InvoiceDate, location: facilityItems[i].Location,description: facilityItems[i].Description, invoice_price:facilityItems[i].Price, contract_price: (hit) ? hit.Price : 0.0,quantity: facilityItems[i].Quantity, }; c.impact =parseFloat((c.invoice_price * c.quantity).toFixed(2)); c.totalspend =parseFloat((c.invoice_price * c.quantity).toFixed(2)); c.pct = ‘’; if(hit) { if (c.invoice_price == c.contract_price) c.status =‘onContractOnPrice’; else c.status = ‘onContractOffPrice’; } else {c.status = ‘offContract’; } r.entries.push(c); } /* if (integrated) {let cTotal = _.pluck(r.entries, ‘contract_price’); let iTotal =_.pluck(r.entries, ‘invoice_price’); var cSum = _.reduce(cTotal,function(memo,obj){ return memo + parseFloat(obj); }, 0 ); var iSum =_.reduce(iTotal, function(memo,obj){ return memo + parseFloat(obj); }, 0); r.metric = (iSum − cSum); r.metricType = ‘$’; if (r.metric > 0.0) {r.status = ‘onContractOffPrice’; } else { r.status =‘onContractOnPrice’; } } else { let iTotal = _.pluck(r.entries,‘invoice_price’); var iSum = _.reduce(iTotal, function(memo,obj){ returnmemo + parseFloat(obj); }, 0 ); r.metric = iSum; r.metricType = ‘$’;r.status = ‘offContract’; } */ return r; } function wrangle(items) { letresults = [ ]; let uniqItems = _.uniq(_.pluck(items, ‘Description’));for(var z = 0; z < uniqItems.length; z++) { let one=uniqItems[z]; lettheseItems = _.filter(items, function(i) { return i.Description==one;}); let facilities = _.uniq(_.pluck(theseItems, ‘Location’)); for(var q= 0; q < facilities.length; q++) { let onef = facilities[q]; letfacilityItems = _.filter(theseItems, function(i){returni.Location==onef}); let fid = facilityItems[0].FacilityId; if (fid < 1 ∥fid > 8) { fid = 0; onef = ‘Satellite’; } results.push(bunch(one, onef,fid, facilityItems)); } results.push(bunch(one, ‘All’, −1, theseItems));} return results; } read_addresses(function( ) { read_contract(function() { read_contract_non_facility(function( ) {parse(‘./db/ochsner/linens/invoices2.csv’, function( ) {//wrangle(lineItems); persist(wrangle(lineItems),‘./db/export/ochsner/linens/linens.json’); }); }); }); });

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system 2603 implements businessanalytics services, for example, provided by Microsoft® Power BI®, thataid in modeling the extracted and segmented invoice line item data andthe extracted contract line item data of the entity for use by theinvoice analytics engine 2810. The business analytics services also aidin authoring of interactive reports and interfaces, for example, theinteractive, dynamic, and searchable, invoice analytics report, theutilization validation interface, the reconciliation report, theutilization report, the optimization report, the cost savingsopportunity report, etc. The business analytics services also provideadvanced analytics to render the interactive reports and interfaces withbusiness service transactional invoice data.

In an embodiment, the invoice analytics system 2603 receives theextracted and segmented invoice line item data and the extractedcontract line item data from a data storage repository, for example, theraw store 2703 exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 27, in the data lakearchitecture as disclosed in the detailed description of FIG. 27. In anembodiment, the contract line item database 205 and the invoice lineitem database 203 source the stored contract line item data and thestored invoice line item data to the raw store 2703. The invoiceanalytics system 2603 interacts with the other databases, for example,the benchmarking database 2825 and the external database 2826 via thenetwork 2822. In an embodiment, the benchmarking database 2825 and theexternal database 2826 are configured as cloud based databasesimplemented in a cloud computing environment, where computing resourcesare delivered as a service over the network 2822. In another embodiment,the contract terms database 2814, the contract line item database 205,the invoice aggregation database 2813, the invoice line item database203, the benchmarking database 2825, and the external database 2826 areimplemented as a data lake 2827.

Computer applications and programs are used for operating the invoiceanalytics system 2603. The programs are loaded onto the fixed mediadrive 2819 and into the memory unit 2803 of the invoice analytics system2603 via the removable media drive 2820. In an embodiment, the computerapplications and programs are loaded into the memory unit 2803 directlyvia the network 2822. The processor 2801 executes an operating system,for example, the Linux® operating system, the Unix® operating system,any version of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system, the Mac OS ofApple Inc., the IBM® OS/2, VxWorks® of Wind River Systems, Inc., QNXNeutrino® developed by QNX Software Systems Ltd., the Palm OS®, theSolaris operating system developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc., theAndroid® operating system of Google Inc., the Windows Phone® operatingsystem of Microsoft Corporation, the iOS operating system of Apple Inc.,the Symbian™ operating system of Symbian Foundation Limited, etc. Theinvoice analytics system 2603 employs the operating system forperforming multiple tasks. The operating system is responsible formanagement and coordination of activities and sharing of resources ofthe invoice analytics system 2603. The operating system further managessecurity of the invoice analytics system 2603, peripheral devicesconnected to the invoice analytics system 2603, and network connections.The operating system employed on the invoice analytics system 2603recognizes, for example, inputs provided by a user of the invoiceanalytics system 2603 using one of the input devices 2818, the outputdevices 2821, files, and directories stored locally on the fixed mediadrive 2819. The operating system on the invoice analytics system 2603executes different programs using the processor 2801. The processor 2801and the operating system together define a computer platform for whichapplication programs in high level programming languages are written.

The processor 2801 retrieves instructions defined by the datacommunication module 2804, the database creation module 2805, the dataextraction module 2806, the quick view interface generation module 2807,the reconciliation module 2808, the utilization validation module 2809,the invoice analytics engine 2810, the report generation module 2811,and the spend computation module 2812 of the invoice analytics system2603, for performing respective functions disclosed above. The processor2801 retrieves instructions for executing the modules, for example,2804, 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of theinvoice analytics system 2603 from the memory unit 2803. A programcounter determines the location of the instructions in the memory unit2803. The program counter stores a number that identifies the currentposition in the program of each of the modules, for example, 2804, 2805,2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of the invoice analyticssystem 2603. The instructions fetched by the processor 2801 from thememory unit 2803 after being processed are decoded. The instructions arestored in an instruction register in the processor 2801. Afterprocessing and decoding, the processor 2801 executes the instructions,thereby performing one or more processes defined by those instructions.

At the time of execution, the instructions stored in the instructionregister are examined to determine the operations to be performed. Theprocessor 2801 then performs the specified operations. The operationscomprise arithmetic operations and logic operations. The operatingsystem performs multiple routines for performing a number of tasksrequired to assign the input devices 2818, the output devices 2821, andthe memory unit 2803 for execution of the modules, for example, 2804,2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of the invoiceanalytics system 2603. The tasks performed by the operating systemcomprise, for example, assigning memory to the modules, for example,2804, 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc., of theinvoice analytics system 2603 and to data used by the invoice analyticssystem 2603, moving data between the memory unit 2803 and disk units,and handling input/output operations. The operating system performs thetasks on request by the operations and after performing the tasks, theoperating system transfers the execution control back to the processor2801. The processor 2801 continues the execution to obtain one or moreoutputs. In an embodiment, the outputs of the execution of the modules,for example, 2804, 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809, 2810, 2811, 2812, etc.,of the invoice analytics system 2603 are displayed to a user of theinvoice analytics system 2603 on the display unit 2802 via the graphicaluser interface (GUI) 2802 a and/or through the output devices 2821 onthe GUI 2605 a of the entity device 2605.

For purposes of illustration, the detailed description refers to theinvoice analytics system 2603 being run locally as a single computersystem; however the scope of the method and system 2600 disclosed hereinis not limited to the invoice analytics system 2603 being run locally asa single computer system via the operating system and the processor2801, but may be extended to run remotely over the network 2822 byemploying a web browser and a remote server, a mobile phone, or otherelectronic devices. In an embodiment, one or more portions of theinvoice analytics system 2603 are distributed across one or morecomputer systems (not shown) coupled to the network 2822.

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium disclosed hereinstores computer program codes comprising instructions executable by atleast one processor 2801 for analyzing business service transactionalinvoice data of an entity and performing invoice analytics for theentity in real time. The computer program codes comprise a firstcomputer program code for receiving multiple contracts comprisingagreement information on the business service transactions between theentity and one or more vendors from one or more data sources 2824 andcreating a contract terms database 2814 for storing the receivedcontracts by vendor; a second computer program code for extractingcontract line item data from the received contracts and creating acontract line item database 205 for storing the extracted contract lineitem data; a third computer program code for transforming the extractedcontract line item data into a quick view format and generating andrendering a contract quick view interface on the graphical userinterface 2605 a of the entity device 2605; a fourth computer programcode for receiving multiple invoices comprising business servicetransactional invoice data corresponding to the business servicetransactions between the entity and one or more vendors from the datasources 2824 and aggregating the business service transactional invoicedata by vendor and by a predefined time duration in the invoiceaggregation database 2813; a fifth computer program code for extractingand segmenting invoice line item data from the aggregated businessservice transactional invoice data and creating an invoice line itemdatabase 203 for storing the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata; a sixth computer program code for identifying, detailing, andoutlining billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors, andoff-contract business service items from the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data with reference to the extracted contract lineitem data for predefined time intervals automatically in real time usingthe created invoice line item database 203 and the created contract lineitem database 205; a seventh computer program code for rectifying theidentified, detailed, and outlined billing pricing errors and contractcompliance errors, and resolving the off-contract business service itemsin real time to reconcile the received invoices in accordance with thereceived contracts at predefined time intervals; an eighth computerprogram code for performing the invoice analytics on the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data with supplementary data for price andutilization optimization of business services and benchmarking in realtime for cost savings in communication with the operational system 2823of the entity on reconciliation of the received invoices; and a tenthcomputer program code for generating an interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report comprising graphical datarepresentations of purchase patterns, outliers, variations, andpredictive analytics for the entity over the predefined time duration atthe predefined time intervals based on the invoice analytics of theextracted and segmented invoice line item data.

The eighth computer program code comprises a ninth computer program codefor computing the cost savings for the entity, in communication with theexternal database 2826, based on analytics criteria comprising theidentified billing pricing errors, the contract compliance errors, andthe off-contract business service items; and in an embodiment, a twelfthcomputer program code for benchmarking the contract line item data andthe invoice line item data using the benchmarking database 2825 in realtime for determining avenues for cost savings in the business servicetransactions; and a thirteenth computer program code for performing acomparative analysis of the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata from the received invoices of each of at least two vendors in asimilar category of the business services at the predefined timeintervals for determining pricing gaps between the vendors and costreduction and utilization optimization opportunities per the extractedand segmented invoice line item data.

The computer program codes further comprise an eleventh computer programcode for generating a utilization validation interface that links to theoperational system 2823 of the entity for validating utilization of thebusiness services on the reconciliation of the received invoices. Thecomputer program codes further comprise a fourteenth computer programcode for generating a feed report comprising the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data by category of the business services, by thevendor, and by the predefined time duration; and a fifteenth computerprogram code for computing a total spend for each of the businessservices over the predefined time duration using the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data and rendering the computed total spendin the generated interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analyticsreport.

The computer program codes further comprise one or more additionalcomputer program codes for performing additional steps that may berequired and contemplated for analyzing business service transactionalinvoice data of an entity and performing invoice analytics for theentity in real time. In an embodiment, a single piece of computerprogram code comprising computer executable instructions performs one ormore steps of the method disclosed herein for analyzing business servicetransactional invoice data of an entity and performing invoice analyticsfor the entity in real time. The computer program codes comprisingcomputer executable instructions are embodied on the non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium. The processor 2801 of the invoiceanalytics system 2603 retrieves these computer executable instructionsand executes them. When the computer executable instructions areexecuted by the processor 2801, the computer executable instructionscause the processor 2801 to perform the steps of the method foranalyzing business service transactional invoice data of an entity andperforming invoice analytics for the entity in real time.

It will be readily apparent in different embodiments that the variousmethods, algorithms, and computer programs disclosed herein areimplemented on non-transitory computer readable storage mediaappropriately programmed for computing devices. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage media participate in providing data, forexample, instructions that are read by a computer, a processor or asimilar device. In different embodiments, the “non-transitory computerreadable storage media” also refer to a single medium or multiple media,for example, a centralized database, a distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers that store one or more sets ofinstructions that are read by a computer, a processor or a similardevice. The “non-transitory computer readable storage media” also referto any medium capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions forexecution by a computer, a processor or a similar device and that causesa computer, a processor or a similar device to perform any one or moreof the methods disclosed herein. Common forms of the non-transitorycomputer readable storage media comprise, for example, a floppy disk, aflexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, a laser disc, a Blu-ray Disc®of the Blu-ray Disc Association, any magnetic medium, a compactdisc-read only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disc (DVD), anyoptical medium, a flash memory card, punch cards, paper tape, any otherphysical medium with patterns of holes, a random access memory (RAM), aprogrammable read only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read onlymemory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read only memory(EEPROM), a flash memory, any other memory chip or cartridge, or anyother medium from which a computer can read.

In an embodiment, the computer programs that implement the methods andalgorithms disclosed herein are stored and transmitted using a varietyof media, for example, the computer readable media in a number ofmanners. In an embodiment, hard-wired circuitry or custom hardware isused in place of, or in combination with, software instructions forimplementing the processes of various embodiments. Therefore, theembodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardware andsoftware. The computer program codes comprising computer executableinstructions can be implemented in any programming language. Examples ofprogramming languages that can be used comprise C, C++, C#, Java®,JavaScript®, Fortran, Ruby, Perl®, Python®, Visual Basic®, hypertextpreprocessor (PHP), Microsoft® .NET, Microsoft® Power BI®, Objective-C®,etc. Other object-oriented, functional, scripting, and/or logicalprogramming languages can also be used. In an embodiment, the computerprogram codes or software programs are stored on or in one or moremediums as object code. In another embodiment, various aspects of themethod and the invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein areimplemented in a non-programmed environment comprising documentscreated, for example, in a hypertext markup language (HTML), anextensible markup language (XML), or other format that render aspects ofa graphical user interface (GUI) or perform other functions, when viewedin a visual area or a window of a browser program. In anotherembodiment, various aspects of the method and the invoice analyticssystem 2603 disclosed herein are implemented as programmed elements, ornon-programmed elements, or any suitable combination thereof.

Where databases are described such as the contract terms database 2814,the contract line item database 205, the invoice aggregation database2813, the invoice line item database 203, the benchmarking database2825, and the external database 2826, it will be understood by one ofordinary skill in the art that (i) alternative database structures tothose described may be employed, and (ii) other memory structuresbesides databases may be employed. Any illustrations or descriptions ofany sample databases disclosed herein are illustrative arrangements forstored representations of information. In an embodiment, any number ofother arrangements are employed besides those suggested by tablesillustrated in the drawings or elsewhere. Similarly, any illustratedentries of the databases represent exemplary information only; one ofordinary skill in the art will understand that the number and content ofthe entries can be different from those disclosed herein. In anotherembodiment, despite any depiction of the databases as tables, otherformats including relational databases, object-based models, and/ordistributed databases are used to store and manipulate the data typesdisclosed herein. Object methods or behaviors of a database can be usedto implement various processes such as those disclosed herein. Inanother embodiment, the databases are, in a known manner, stored locallyor remotely from a device that accesses data in such a database. Inembodiments where there are multiple databases in the invoice analyticssystem 2603, the databases are integrated to communicate with each otherfor enabling simultaneous updates of data linked across the databases,when there are any updates to the data in one of the databases.

The method and the invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein can beconfigured to work in a network environment comprising one or morecomputers that are in communication with one or more devices via thenetwork 2822. In an embodiment, the computers communicate with thedevices directly or indirectly, via a wired medium or a wireless mediumsuch as the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN) or the Ethernet, a token ring, or via any appropriatecommunications mediums or combination of communications mediums. Each ofthe devices comprises processors, examples of which are disclosed above,that are adapted to communicate with the computers. In an embodiment,each of the computers is equipped with a network communication device,for example, a network interface card, a modem, or other networkconnection device suitable for connecting to the network 2822. Each ofthe computers and the devices executes an operating system, examples ofwhich are disclosed above. While the operating system may differdepending on the type of computer, the operating system provides theappropriate communications protocols to establish communication linkswith the network 2822. Any number and type of machines may be incommunication with the computers.

The method and the invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein arenot limited to a particular computer system platform, processor,operating system, or network. In an embodiment, one or more aspects ofthe method and the invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein aredistributed among one or more computer systems, for example, serversconfigured to provide one or more services to one or more clientcomputers, or to perform a complete task in a distributed system. Forexample, one or more aspects of the method and the invoice analyticssystem 2603 disclosed herein are performed on a client-server systemthat comprises components distributed among one or more server systemsthat perform multiple functions according to various embodiments. Thesecomponents comprise, for example, executable, intermediate, orinterpreted code, which communicate over the network 2822 using acommunication protocol. The method and the invoice analytics system 2603disclosed herein are not limited to be executable on any particularsystem or group of systems, and are not limited to any particulardistributed architecture, network, or communication protocol.

The foregoing examples have been provided merely for the purpose ofexplanation and are in no way to be construed as limiting of the methodand the invoice analytics system 2603 disclosed herein. While the methodand the invoice analytics system 2603 have been described with referenceto various embodiments, it is understood that the words, which have beenused herein, are words of description and illustration, rather thanwords of limitation. Furthermore, although the method and the invoiceanalytics system 2603 have been described herein with reference toparticular means, materials, and embodiments, the method and the invoiceanalytics system 2603 are not intended to be limited to the particularsdisclosed herein; rather, the method and the invoice analytics system2603 extend to all functionally equivalent structures, methods and uses,such as are within the scope of the appended claims. Those skilled inthe art, having the benefit of the teachings of this specification, mayeffect numerous modifications thereto and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the method and the invoiceanalytics system 2603 disclosed herein in their aspects.

I claim:
 1. A method for analyzing business service transactionalinvoice data of an entity and performing invoice analytics for saidentity in real time, said method comprising: providing an invoiceanalytics system comprising at least one processor configured to executecomputer program instructions, wherein said invoice analytics system isimplemented using a data lake architecture; receiving invoices andcorresponding services contracts from one or more data sources at aningestion endpoint of said invoice analytics system implemented usingsaid data lake architecture; creating a contract terms databasecomprising specific financial terms from the received services contractsfor reconciling the received invoices to agreed upon contract terms inthe received services contracts and aggregating the business servicetransactional invoice data of the received invoices in an invoiceaggregation database of said invoice analytics system implemented usingsaid data lake architecture; transforming ingested data into a rawstore, by said invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture, by extracting contract line item data from the receivedservices contracts and extracting and segmenting invoice line item datafrom the aggregated business service transactional invoice data, andstoring the extracted contract line item data and the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data in the raw store via a queue;implementing platform governance on the raw store of said invoiceanalytics system implemented using said data lake architecture incommunication with a view database, wherein implementing said platformgovernance comprises monitoring quality of the ingested data, ensuringcomprehensive data categorization, monitoring authorization of access ofthe raw store, monitoring protection of sensitive data using masking,and performing quota management of the extracted contract line item dataand the extracted and segmented invoice line item data stored in the rawstore; transforming the ingested data into a metadata store, by saidinvoice analytics system implemented using said data lake architecture,by cataloging the ingested data, and storing the cataloged data in themetadata store; performing reconciliation, optimization, andintelligence on said data stored in said raw store and said metadatastore, by said invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture, to generate interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report, wherein performing said reconciliation, saidoptimization, and said intelligence comprises generating a searchdatabase comprising search terms used to search the raw store based on aquery; storing in the view database of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture views generated usingdifferent queries on the raw store; at a consumption end point of saidinvoice analytics system implemented using said data lake architecture,performing steps comprising: transforming the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data into a feed report, by said invoice analyticssystem implemented using said data lake architecture, wherein the feedreport is generated from the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata based on category of business services, based on vendors, and basedon a predefined duration of time; benchmarking the contract line itemdata and the invoice line item data using a benchmarking database ofsaid invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture in real time for determining avenues for cost savings inbusiness service transactions; and transforming the determined avenuesfor the cost savings in the business service transactions between theentity and the vendors into a benchmark report, by said invoiceanalytics system implemented using said data lake architecture.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said invoice analytics comprises: computingsaid cost savings for said entity by said invoice analytics system, incommunication with an external database, based on analytics criteriacomprising identified billing pricing errors, contract complianceerrors, and off-contract business service items.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein said analytics criteria further comprises cost reductionopportunities and utilization optimization opportunities per saidextracted and segmented invoice line item data.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein said contract line item data comprises pricing, operationalinformation, quality information, payment information of said businessservice transactions recited in said received services contracts, andfinancial data that impacts line item pricing for business servicesspend of said entity, and wherein said invoice line item data comprisespricing, operational information, quality information, and paymentinformation of said business service transactions between said entityand said vendors.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said invoiceanalytics further comprises performing a comparative analysis of saidextracted and segmented invoice line item data from said receivedinvoices of each of at least two vendors in a similar category of saidbusiness services over said predefined duration of time, by said invoiceanalytics system for determining pricing gaps between said at least twovendors and cost reduction and utilization optimization opportunitiesper said extracted and segmented invoice line item data.
 6. The methodof claim 1, further comprising computing total spend for each of saidbusiness services over said predefined time duration by said invoiceanalytics system using said extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata, and rendering said computed total spend in said generatedinteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report by saidinvoice analytics system.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein saidbusiness services comprise professional services, purchased services,and outsourced services, and wherein said business service transactionscomprise professional service transactions, purchased servicetransactions, and outsourced service transactions.
 8. An invoiceanalytics system for analyzing business service transactional invoicedata of an entity and performing invoice analytics for said entity inreal time, said invoice analytics system comprising: a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium configured to store computer programinstructions for execution by at least one processor of said invoiceanalytics system, wherein said invoice analytics system is implementedusing a data lake architecture; and said least one processorcommunicatively coupled to said non-transitory computer readable storagemedium, said at least one processor configured to execute said computerprogram instructions comprising: receiving invoices and correspondingservices contracts from one or more data sources at an ingestionendpoint of said invoice analytics system implemented using said datalake architecture; creating a contract terms database comprisingspecific financial terms from the received services contracts forreconciling the received invoices to agreed upon contract terms in thereceived services contracts and aggregating the business servicetransactional invoice data of the received invoices in an invoiceaggregation database of said invoice analytics system implemented usingsaid data lake architecture; transforming ingested data into a rawstore, by said invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture, by extracting contract line item data from the receivedservices contracts and extracting and segmenting invoice line item datafrom the aggregated business service transactional invoice data, andstoring the extracted contract line item data and the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data in the raw store via a queue;implementing platform governance on the raw store of said invoiceanalytics system implemented using said data lake architecture incommunication with a view database, wherein implementing said platformgovernance comprises monitoring quality of the ingested data, ensuringcomprehensive data categorization, monitoring authorization of access ofthe raw store, monitoring protection of sensitive data using masking,and performing quota management of the extracted contract line item dataand the extracted and segmented invoice line item data stored in the rawstore; transforming the ingested data into a metadata store bycataloging the ingested data, by said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture, and storing the catalogeddata in the metadata store; performing reconciliation, optimization, andintelligence on said data stored in said raw store and said metadatastore, by said invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture, to generate interactive, dynamic, and searchable invoiceanalytics report, wherein performing said reconciliation, saidoptimization, and said intelligence comprises generating a searchdatabase comprising search terms used to search the raw store based on aquery; storing in the view database of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture views generated usingdifferent queries on the raw store; transforming the extracted andsegmented invoice line item data into a feed report, at a consumptionend point of said invoice analytics system implemented using said datalake architecture, by said invoice analytics system, wherein the feedreport is generated from the extracted and segmented invoice line itemdata based on category of business services, based on vendors, and basedon a predefined duration of time; benchmarking the contract line itemdata and the invoice line item data in real time, at the consumption endpoint of said invoice analytics system implemented using said data lakearchitecture, using a benchmarking database of said invoice analyticssystem, for determining avenues for cost savings in business servicetransactions; and transforming, by said invoice analytics system, thedetermined avenues for the cost savings in the business servicetransactions between the entity and the vendors into a benchmark report,at the consumption end point of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture.
 9. The invoice analyticssystem of claim 8, wherein said-computer program instructions furthercomprise: computing said cost savings for said entity, in communicationwith an external database, based on analytics criteria comprisingidentified billing pricing errors, contract compliance errors, andoff-contract business service items.
 10. The invoice analytics system ofclaim 8, wherein said computer program instructions further compriseperforming a comparative analysis of said extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data from said received invoices of each of at leasttwo vendors in a similar category of said business services over saidpredefined time duration for determining pricing gaps between said atleast two vendors and cost reduction and utilization optimizationopportunities per said extracted and segmented invoice line item data.11. The invoice analytics system of claim 8, wherein said computerprogram instructions further comprise computing total spend for each ofsaid business services over said predefined time duration using saidextracted and segmented invoice line item data and rendering saidcomputed total spend in said generated interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report.
 12. The invoice analytics system ofclaim 8, wherein said contract line item data comprises pricing,operational information, quality information, and payment information ofsaid business service transactions recited in said received servicescontracts, and financial data that impacts line item pricing forbusiness services spend of said entity, and wherein said invoice lineitem data comprises pricing, operational information, qualityinformation, and payment information of said business servicetransactions between said entity and said vendors.
 13. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium having embodied thereon, computerprogram codes comprising instructions executable by at least oneprocessor of an invoice analytics system implemented using a data lakearchitecture, for analyzing business service transactional invoice dataof an entity and performing invoice analytics for said entity in realtime, wherein said computer program codes comprise: a first computerprogram code for receiving invoices and corresponding services contractsfrom one or more data sources at an ingestion endpoint of said invoiceanalytics system implemented using said data lake architecture; a secondcomputer program code for creating a contract terms database comprisingspecific financial terms from the received services contracts forreconciling the received invoices to agreed upon contract terms in thereceived services contracts and aggregating the business servicetransactional invoice data of the received invoices in an invoiceaggregation database of said invoice analytics system implemented usingsaid data lake architecture; a third computer program code fortransforming ingested data into a raw store, by extracting contract lineitem data from the received services contracts and extracting andsegmenting invoice line item data from the aggregated business servicetransactional invoice data, and storing the extracted contract line itemdata and the extracted and segmented invoice line item data in the rawstore via a queue; a fourth computer program code for implementingplatform governance on the raw store of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture in communication with aview database, wherein implementing said platform governance comprisesmonitoring quality of the ingested data, ensuring comprehensive datacategorization, monitoring authorization of access of the raw store,monitoring protection of sensitive data using masking, and performingquota management of the extracted contract line item data and theextracted and segmented invoice line item data stored in the raw store;a fifth computer program code for transforming the ingested data into ametadata store by cataloging the ingested data, and storing thecataloged data in the metadata store; a sixth computer program code forperforming reconciliation, optimization, and intelligence on said datastored in said raw store and said metadata store, to generate aninteractive, dynamic, and searchable invoice analytics report, whereinperforming said reconciliation, said optimization, and said intelligencecomprises generating a search database comprising search terms used tosearch the raw store based on a query; a seventh computer program codefor storing in the view database of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture views generated usingdifferent queries on the raw store; an eighth computer program code forperforming steps at a consumption end point, comprising: transformingthe extracted and segmented invoice line item data into a feed report,wherein the feed report is generated from the extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data based on category of business services, based onvendors, and based on a predefined duration of time; benchmarking thecontract line item data and the invoice line item data in real time,using a benchmarking database of said invoice analytics systemimplemented using said data lake architecture, for determining avenuesfor cost savings in business service transactions; and transforming thedetermined avenues for the cost savings in the business servicetransactions between the entity and the vendors into a benchmark report.14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13,wherein said computer program codes further comprise a ninth computerprogram code for computing said cost savings for said entity, incommunication with an external database, based on analytics criteriacomprising identified billing pricing errors, contract complianceerrors, and off-contract business service items.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein said computerprogram codes further comprise a tenth computer program code forperforming a comparative analysis of said extracted and segmentedinvoice line item data from said received invoices of each of at leasttwo vendors in a similar category of said business services over saidpredefined duration of time for determining pricing gaps between said atleast two vendors and cost reduction and utilization optimizationopportunities per said extracted and segmented invoice line item data.16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13,wherein said computer program codes further comprise an eleventhcomputer program code for computing total spend for each of saidbusiness services over said predefined time duration using saidextracted and segmented invoice line item data and rendering saidcomputed total spend in said generated interactive, dynamic, andsearchable invoice analytics report.
 17. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 13, wherein said contract line itemdata comprises pricing, operational information, quality information,payment information of said business service transactions recited insaid received services contracts, and financial data that impacts lineitem pricing for business services spend of said entity, and whereinsaid invoice line item data comprises pricing, operational information,quality information, and payment information of said business servicetransactions between said entity and said vendors.